Like Sands Through the Hour Glass
by Lore55
Summary: So were the days of her lives. It was hard eking out a living in the harshest environments. Between the cost of an apartment and the buzzards circling over head, Lien had gotten used to trouble before and after her death. The worst of it comes when her cousin steals a flying buffalo. OC reincarnation. You know the drill.
1. Prologue

**Yes, I know. I shouldn't be starting another story. Yet, here is a prologue for a new one.**

 **So, without further ado, I have no ownership over Avatar.**

* * *

Silence was a myth.

In the largest cities there was no such thing. It was always loud, always clattering and bustling. Horns and sirens, people and animals. From news boys to pigeons, to bouncers to bats. Drunks and the occasional raccoon. In the day it was constant sun, reflecting off of glass and brightening immensely. At night it was head lights, TVs in bars, neon signs and a few lonely cell screens.

Cities never sleep.

Even underground, in subways the closest thing to peace you got was the silence of strangers on a journey together. Strangers who saw each other every day but never spoke a word.

The man with a purple umbrella who always dropped changes in his seat. The girl with the fur coat that managed to stand the ride in heals. A boy who dyed his hair pink and blue and only got on Wednesday nights. They were her people and she didn't know their names, any more than they knew hers.

It was private.

The train clacked over old tracks, florescent lights brightened above and flickered dimmer. Rocking back and forth, ever and always as the travelers were dragged along its never changing path. From 5th to 49th street.

Her eyes didn't close, the way they wanted to. She was tired, not stupid. If she rested, she would miss her stop, and her glass studio wouldn't be open for another hour. It was a struggle to get her creations sold as it was, even one hour unopened would be an hour too late.

The young woman shifted, looked up at the blurry lettering that drawled across the the sign.

Two more stops and she could start selling her beautiful craft.

And, even better, get her coffee.

A yawn cracked her jaw, just in time to hit a bump that made her bounce on the seat she'd captured. The result was her teeth snapped together with an audible, horrible sound.

Clicked together, her jaw groaned loudly. Confusing, as it was no longer moving nor did it hurt at all.

It took a second to realize that the sound wasn't her teeth.

The low, terrible moan was not from herself or from one of her fellows, but from the earth around them. The train pitched and jerked, throwing her harshly against one of the hand bars. Her neck object, aching harshly when her head snapped forwards while her shoulder, caught on the metal, stayed still.

She didn't have time to focus on the pain or the dinniness of being tossed around, didn't even think to look for her spilled back or missing phone.

There was no time.

The metal casing of the train was giving way, shrieking horribly in her ears. Or was her, screaming?

From outside came crashing in stone and steel, ripping through like claws, leaving a carcass in it's wake. The man with the umbrella lost his head.

Literally.

Her stomach rolled along with the ground beneath their feet. The metal pole she had been thrust against bent with weight from above, crumpling with the sound that signaled her demise. Pain shot through her stomach, worse than anything she'd ever felt before.

The last thing she saw before the crunch of her skull was a twisted slab of metal protruding from her liver, slick with blood.

* * *

Silence was a myth.

In the largest deserts there was no such thing as silence. The wind blew, lifting sand and fluttering the flaps of tents, pulling and pushing on those that made their home there. From the humans to the jackals, to the buzzard-wasps to giant rhinoceros beetles. Lizards and the occasional wail of a new born.


	2. Chapter 1: Gansu

**Alright, first real chapter is here.**

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* * *

She was pretty. Shuya, that is. Tall and tanned, she swept around with the grace of the desert birds. Sand would lift and twist with just a flutter of her fingers, forming whatever she willed it to with the greatest of ease.

Her little daughter, Lien, was a bit different.

There was no doubt she one day be just as tall, but as a child she was scrawny and gangly, like a new born antelope-cat. Which was, apparently, a thing in her new home. Which would have been splendid, as they were adorable, if it wasn't one of the many, many signs that she was far from where she belonged.

Lien stared out at the passing dunes, watching the ever changing desert roll past. One of her hands gripped Shuya's pants, holding tight to her mother for her own sake. The other was white knuckled against edge of the sand-Sailer. Not that you could tell through the cloth wrapped around her hand.

Dark eyes watched the world, her long lashes protecting them from the wiped up sand and the wind as their pack raced across the desert. Bouncing every now and again, moving in perfect unity through the endless dunes of Si Wong.

Her tribe, the Gansu, was moving again. They had to. Their territory, for all the good things in it, only held water in certain places, unlike the Hami who laid claim to an entire spring system in the east. It made it a struggle to keep their water, and their food.

Sailer's were built for speed across the desert, and mobility in the big storms. Not for large transports of goods or necessities. For that they waited until the storms had passed and gathered their equipment into the large Carriers. Once those were packed they were roped to a herd of Sailer's controlled by Benders. One of which included her mother, the most talented in the tribe.

Ironic since her daughter had no talent at all for it.

Lien puffed harsh sighs through the cloth over her mouth. Irritated. She was irritated. There was no guarantee she would know already. Many didn't develop until they were just shy of puberty. Her cousin, Ghashiun, hadn't managed to get anything to move until last month and he was two years ahead of her five.

So it wouldn't be very much of a surprise if she didn't develop for a while yet. Five was pushing it, even for her bloodline.

That didn't make her feel as much better as she thought it would.

Lien leaned on her mother's leg, letting the constant shift the sand bender push her to and fro and they moved across their land. She did wonder what it would be like, to draw the earth to her finger tip, to whip it around in flurries of power and strength.

It must be incredible.

How wonderful to have that kind of power, a power over the world around them that gave an advantage in the harsh climate. In the desert, any leg up was needed if they wanted to survive.

It was frightening. Death stalked them on the distance, rippling with the heat off the sand.

It was strange, two. Heat and sand, two things she had made her life out of before. Back then it had been hard too. In a city where a studio apartment was over 2000 a month life wasn't easy. You had to work for it, hard. Even then sometimes it wasn't enough. Even if you had enough for the roof you still needed to think about health. Food, water, electricity. None of that was free.

It was a true stroke of luck that glass had turned into a trend when it did, or else she would have had to leave the city she was born into and the art that her family had passed to her, before they had passed on.

Memories of her past had ceased to dampen her eyes by then, but she still felt the terrible ache in her chest when she remembers all she'd left behind.

Not that dwelling would do anything, she was well aware. It wasn't like she'd left any lasting legacy behind. No kids, not husband. Just her glass. It was best to move forwards in the desert or she might never move again.

Her mother told her once when she complained of wishing rest 'those who stand still are swallowed by the sand'. And just as she had not wanted that then, she did not want it now.

So the only choice was to go on. Move. Always, and let the sand sweep over her foot prints.

It was the way of her new people. To Lien, it seemed tragic. No matter what they did, no matter how they struggled and toiled there wouldn't be anything left of them when they died. Even their bones would be buried in the sand and, in the end, forgotten.

The only way to be remembered was to be great enough for stories to be told of their exploits, like her Grandfather, Li-Shu, who had built the fastest Sailer their tribe had ever seen. Or Ghashiun's great-grandmother, the most precise sand bender in four generations. So, unless she did something noticeable, she would struggle through another life and have even less to show for it than she had before.

A hand touched her head, drawing her attention away from the endless desert and up to the face of Yulduz, her aunt. Non bender, Ghashiun's mother. She was smiling when she opened her arms for Lien and it took the little one only a minute to release her mother and step into them.

The people of the sand were, for one reason or another, very touchy feely, even when it rubbed grains between them rough enough to hurt and it was too warm to reasonably expect anyone to want to touch you. Or so it would have been, she knew, if the body Lien now inhabited had not been crafted for such an environment as this.

Like the rest of her people, like her mother, her limbs were long and she was thin. The less body fat they possessed the insulation there was, and there for the less likely to overheat they became. It was simple adaptation. The exact opposite of what happened in colder worlds, where people were shorter and fat reserves worked to protect their core temperature.

Or so a national geographic special on the Inuit had once told her.

While logic and physics may not have carried over totally, some laws of nature had to remain the same.

"Lien, do you know where we are?" Yulduz asked her. It made the girl wonder, not for the first time, why she was Lien.

Lien, it was very far from the mark of Yulduz or Shuya. Or even her cousin's friends, Anora, Ona, and Elnura. Of course, there were those in her tribe that had picked up names from traders. Ki-shin had brought a name back for his son that would have made Lien laugh if it wasn't such a horrible reminder of where she was.

Sokka was only one in the Gansu littler than her. So small he was still in a basket strapped his mother's back until he could walk properly on the sand.

The little girl held on to her aunt's shoulders, ignoring the frown Ghashiun was throwing at her from under his own face wraps. It was only visible through the squinting of his eyes. He was such a momma's boy. Her eyes wandered from him to the compass on the deck, ticking away to the left. The sun was lowering itself to their right.

"We're… half a day from Twisted Knot. Going South," she said at last. "Between Misty Palms and the Center."

Yulduz patted her head and set her down beside Ghashiun. "That's right. You're very bright, Little Lien."

Lien was pretty sure that if his mouth was in the open Ghashiun would have stuck his tongue out at her. To which she would have rolled her eyes and gone back to looking at the passing dunes. At first glance they were all the same, but after five years of seeing nothing else she was beginning to notice things in their changing patterns. Like tides.

Or a jigsaw puzzle that kept changing its pieces.

It made it difficult to navigate, impossible to map properly. Her people were experts on getting across the desert though. Well, around. No one crossed a Si Wong. It was impossible.

Perhaps that would be what she would remembered for.

* * *

They had managed to make it to the Commune before the storm broke.

When she had first heard them talking about a commune Lien's first thought was that they weren't desert bandits after all, but hippies.

That theory was quickly shot to hell when she found out that commune was actually code for town. Or something similar. There weren't enough resources in the desert for many people to stay in one place, the Misty Palms being one of the few exceptions. Across the Si Wong was a number of Communes, where tribes came to meet, exchange goods and services, and mingle. It was also where Traders were found, and Merchants who would sell to and buy from the people of the sand.

This one was called by its inhabitants the Silver Spring Oasis. The plants the grew around it, some creeping species of lotus, spread up across the banks and into the branchless trees that dotted the water. The silver tinted vines slithered around the buildings that made the watering hole their home, almost obscuring them completely. The plants stretched out towards the desert, like the reaching rippled of water from the ground.

Silver Spring indeed.

The Spring was in the middle of being buried with sand, along with their Sailers. Lien was standing near the corner of one room, playing with the long stripes of clothe that had been wrapped around her hands. They made her look like a boxer in a bad Rocky spin off, she thought.

Around the large room her family had gathered. Once they were fed and hydrated the sand benders that had been working today slipped past a dust colored cloth, into another room that was made entirely of mattresses and heavy blankets. In the desert, the heat plummeted at night until it might as well have been freezing.

The rest of the Gansu had spread themselves out around the room, talking quietly. Children ran and played. Ghashiun and his friends had been running amuck around the fire pit when she looked away to mock up some half assed cat's cradle. It was easier with strings than ribbons but ribbons was what she had so she made due.

She was halfway done with the Eiffel Tower when a shadow fell over her small self. She looked up just in time to find herself shoved onto the floor.

Lien fell with a yelp, her butt hitting the hard packed ground of the house painfully. Her tailbone popped and tear welled in her eyes when pain radiated outward from it, hot and sharp.

"What," Ghashiun mocked from above her, "Are you gonna cry?" he demanded. The other children around him started laughing. Across the room Yulduz and Sho-Ma stood up and started moving towards their son, along side Lindor, Ilida, and Rodez. They didn't get the chance to get close enough to pull the children apart.

Lien reacted too fast, moving on instinct and driven by hot anger and indignation. She lifted her leg and kicked out, smashing her foot into Ghashiun's knee cap so hard dust rolled between them. The little boy dropped to the ground, howling as he gripped his leg.

His parents came running.

Lien was glowering at him, furious. The little punk had pushed her down because his mom had been talking to her, she was sure of it, and then he insulted her?

The adult part of her brain knew that the reaction was childish, but if she was being totally honest she had been childish for a long time. Lien was and always had been a strong believer in petty vengeance, and this seemed fair to her. His knee for her coccyx.

"Ghashiun, stop crying, let me see," Yulduz ordered, kneeling by her son. He only wailed louder once he knew she was there, though he did nothing to keep her from pulling his hands away from his knee. The mother sucked in a sharp breath. Something between a gasp and a shout. Her husband loomed over her shoulder, his brows furrowing in confusion. His eyes lifted up to Lien, who was standing in the corner again, dusting her self off and trying to see if the damage was bad.

Her rear end hurt, taking up most of her focus. So much of it she almost didn't notice it.

The two hand prints in the sand, made entirely out of glass.


	3. Chapter 2: Father

_Fire is the element of power_.

That she remembered very well. She remembered her fire too, the warmth of her hearth and the heat the molten glass pressed against her through the sheets of scorched paper. The calefaction that rolled off when she twisted her tongs, stretched and spun her artwork.

Fire is life.

Her creations had never gone out of control but sometimes, when she pulled and cut and blew, she could swear she was breathing life into the glowing sand, steadily melting it into becoming something more. Something light and fragile, beautiful and full of colors.

She didn't make things live. She didn't make them dance and laugh and sing. No, the creatures she made of fire would go on to exist in the menagerie inside the china cabinet. They would grace the side tables of the living room and watch over the house, bear witness to the dog wetting the carpet and the cat scratching the drapes and the children torturing them both. Her craft would sit in the middle of the table, on its own or filled with flowers or surrounded by Thanksgiving.

Until they shattered, as all glass must, Lien's creations would be in the lives of many, a passing stranger or familiar friend. Longed for and forgotten in turn.

Such is the fate of art.

She could make her art again, like this. It would be hard, of course. Sand had to be separated individually, which would be easier if she was a bender of the earth rather than the flame. Temperature would have to stay consistent. And just because she could manipulate fire didn't mean she couldn't get burned. Zuko's face was a testament to that fact.

There was also the material she would need. Tweezers, tongs, a blow pipe, not to mention frit and ground joint tools…

All she had was herself, a walking talking kiln, and even then that was only if she could somehow manage to regulate her fire continuously.

It had a been a week since she first found it and in that time the closest thing she'd done to fire bending was accidently lighting Shuya's hair up.

Lien was lucky her mother didn't mind. It did bring up a question she had never cared enough to ask before though.

For as long as she had been alive in this world all she had was a mother. It was doubtful that she was Jesus, so the only conclusion she could make was that he father was elsewhere. Dead, alive, she had no idea. She was curious now.

Curiosity did kill the cat.

She was already dead so what did it matter?

Lien interrupted their dinner some days later with a quiet, "Mowm?" She wasn't pronouncing it right. The words were still giving her trouble here, enough that while she heard some off handed accent everyone else heard a speech impediment.

That didn't mean she was necessarily quiet. It just meant she would kick the shit out of any punk that tried to make fun of her for it. Mostly, that was her cousin.

Ghashiun was a prissy little brat, prideful already and full of himself, and obsessed with proving himself as good of a bender as his father, and his mother. Lien didn't understand how a seven year old was so obsessed. Maybe it was because he was seven.

Children were horrible.

They ran away, got sticky, and broke things. Lots of thing. Everything.

"Yes, Little Lien?" Shuya had knelt down while she was thinking about one of her predicaments. She was good about that, getting onto her daughters level. It was irksome at times, a reminder than she was still so young Shuya had to get on a knee to be at level.

"Was my father from the Fire Nation?" she quizzed. It was flat out, and honest. After all, what was she going to do, hide her bending her entire life? The desert was not the kind of environment where someone could afford to hold back any advantage.

Fire definitely counted as that.

Shuya didn't look angry or hurt or anything else that would signal that her meeting my father was a regret or a bad memory for her. The woman only looked surprised at the newly posed question.

"Yes, he was. You father was a Lieutenant in their army," she said. It was interesting, she said it simply. Like there was nothing to hide. Lien tilted her head. She had no idea what year it was or if they were in the war already. Or if it had passed by and she was going to have a run in with Korra and Asami. Hell, for all she knew she was back in the time when Wan was the Avatar. Or Roku, or Ko-what's his face?

Well, maybe not Wan. She hadn't seen any spirits running around and her people's stories went back too far for bending to be so new.

So, she was at least in the future. And judging by the lack of radios it was before then end of 100 Year War. Which left a lot of time that it could be.

Not that it really mattered. She knew how things went, and while they got bad and people were hurt in the end everything was fine. The Avatar won, darkness was kept at bay. And the desert went untouched, as it always was. No one was interested in its vast sand save those who surfed its waves.

It had no Spirit Vines nor any trees to grow. It was no agriculturally able environment. It might be a good place to imprison a water bender, but that was about it. Everything else was only for those who called the desert home. The Gansu, Hami, Jiuquan, Hohhot, Lanzhou, and Long-Shou, connected through the sand. There were more, surely, but those six were the largest of the vast region of the Si Wong.

It was their home, and how it was hers.

Strange, the struggle for survival was daily, but she had no desire to leave. Even though she probably could, could pack up and take off as soon as she was in her teens, she found that she didn't want to. Looking out at the sand around them she wanted nothing more than to wander them forever at her mother's side.

"What was my father doing here?" she asked, that thought still in her mind. There was no need for him to be there. They were fine just the way they were, with just her and Shuya. She had no need for a father for she had a dozen of them in Sha-Mo and the other men in the tribe. They were together, a family.

Shuya hummed, oblivious to her daughter's thoughts.

"People look for many things in the desert, Little Lien. Some seek to disappear, some seek to find things that have been lost. You father was one of many who come here to look for the great library of Wan Shi Tong. "

Wan Shi Tong. The giant owl that hated humans, who's library harbored dangerous secrets.

"Did he ever find it?" she quizzed, wracking her brain for who had been able to find the library that the series touched down on.

Shuya made a sound in her throat, deep down, and twisted her head this way and that. A movement that made almost exclusively by her people. It meant a lack of certainty.

"He asked our tribe to help him find it. We did try to help, but he was a very temperamental man. And we have little patience for people like him, who throw fits over the time it takes to sift through sand. He left after some time, fed up with our ways. When I last saw him he was taking a Camelephant into a sand storm."

That was a fine way to tell a little girl her father was dead.

Not that there was any other way to do it. The desert were harsh and shelter was scarce. The same was said about the people of the sand. Lien, who had died herself and lost the fear of it, nodded to show she understood.

"Alright. Will you ever find a husband?" she asked, switching topics. She wanted Shuya to be happy, but if she was being honest she liked the attention that the woman gave her. Very different from the lack luster attempts her first family had made at interaction. They were all too busy working or running around the city to pay her much mind.

She wasn't neglected by any means but it was a far cry from the close knit group that was her new home.

Shuya laughed softly, her low voice melodic. "Perhaps one day. Would that make you happy, Little Lien?"

"You make me happy," she said instead of answering, winding her arms around the woman's neck. Shuya pulled her close, and stood, bringing the girl up with her until her feet were dangling high from the ground.

She hoped that things wouldn't change too fast.

* * *

Learning to Fire Bend in the middle of a desert, surrounded by nothing but earth benders was… challenging, to say the least. It wasn't that she was without help. The Gansu did everything in their power to help her out, but there were some things that just couldn't translate from sand to fire.

For one thing, she generated her own element. There was no need to be connected to anything, as long as there was air so too was their fire to feed of that air. As long as there was air around her she would be able to generate her own flames. Which was a little weird, because there was nothing around to fuel the fire. Her energy, or chi, or whatever the hell it was must do it sufficiently or the fire would never ignite.

It was difficult to control, at first. Even with all of her knowledge on the subject there was difference between watching a cartoon and learning to control super powers.

She didn't bother with the leaf trick that Aang had started with. Lien knew herself and her body enough to know that she did not possess the patience and her body didn't have the ability to sit still for that long. Besides, she wasn't going to waste a leaf on something like this.

Instead, she used what they had in abundance.

Sand.

From the bottom up she worked, first with simple blasts and then with more power, and less, testing the extent of her abilities. The good thing about the desert was that there was nothing there to burn, so long as she stayed far enough away from camp to practice safely. The same guide lines were set up for the young sand bender too, so she didn't stick out too much in most regards.

Honestly, their lack of prejudice surprised her.

In stories like this there was always something. A dead parent, discrimination, childhood trauma, all of the above. There was only one thing like that in her life and she didn't even care about it. Sure Ghashiun was a little shit of a cousin but that was just a normal kid thing, and he didn't make fun of her for being a fire bender or a bastard the way he could have. He pulled her hair and pushed her down and mocked her pronunciation.

All because his mom liked to help her with her bending.

It was interesting, really. They could teach her everything but she was learning things in a way completely different from what she was sure she was supposed to. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to be a very unique bender when she grew up.

After all, she wasn't flying around with kung fu of any sort. She was moving more like an air bender or a water bender than fire or earth. All of her people were. Because of the consistency of sand they had learned to adapt their bending to reflect its loose ways, and so she too learned to adapt, only she learned to adapt their moves into fire.

Which was easier said than done and easier done than expected.

Watching the show from her childhood Lien had never imagined that fire could be so flexible, so versatile. It moved with her, as long as she poured power and continuous energy behind it. Instead of short, powerful bursts the way of her people called for continued use and fluid movement, not harsh japs and spikes.

The way she was designing put in both.

She practiced for a days, weeks, months, and years, refining and learning, trial and error. Somethings were possible, some simply weren't, and she learned from her mistakes. Quickly. Nothing hurt quite like a burn in the desert.

Eventually, she even figured out how to control the fire enough she could get a Sailer moving. At first she thought she could create a small vortex the way everyone else did. It would have required very fine movements and hard fought sovereignty over the flames to keep them small enough not to burn the cloth but hot enough and moving just right to make a vacuum big enough it would push the glider along. Every time she tried the glider caught fire or it wouldn't move at all.

Which what when she switched to Plan B, and discovered that it was easier to brace herself on the back and send a jet off the aft. Like a rocket ship over the dunes.

Why she didn't try that before, who knew? Doing that though she found that she didn't even need to use the cloth for the sailer, and that she could go much faster than Ghashiun or any of his friends. At the same time, she could go for much shorter time, as well.

Everything had a balance, she supposed, and bending was no different.

Sailing was fun, but there was one thing that Lien loved more than anything else in the world.

Glass.

She found that she didn't need fire to make heat. She could do that individually, and if she focused it all into one finger she could draw designed of glass into the sand.

They weren't very pretty, to be perfectly honest. They were disasters. She was still a child, her fine muscle control was still lacking, and the glass she made was almost exclusively one color. She would have killed for something other than yellow by the time she was six.

When eight years in this world was up she finally figured out that it was possible to trade for what she needed. Not colored sand, in the Si Wong things were limited to shades of white and golds.

Which she could use, and her creations were good enough by then that she was able to sell them off again to traders and tourists at the Oasis' that her tribe frequented. The Beetle Headed Merchants especially liked her renditions of their name sakes.

It gave her the money to trade for long rods of colored glass from the cities and the south. Blues, red, green, and purples. Things that she could never find in the dunes. Thus, her business was started.

Life in the desert was hard, but she wouldn't trade it for anything.


	4. Chapter 3: Knowledge

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* * *

Twelve was a special number for the Gansu.

Twelve was the age at which a young sand bender was to test their merit and their worth, their ability to survive in the hostile environment of the Si Wong.

When Lien was twelve she had thought she would be exempt of this particular challenge. She was no sand bender, she was an orthodox fire bender. Why would they make her go out into the desert, on her own, to get from place to place.

The girl set up the Sailer with all the supplies needed for the two day trip from the Merchant camp she was to start in to the Twisted Knot Commune. Shuya was fussing over her clothes, making sure that none of her skin was showing and that she had fully functioning sun goggles. Lien, who loved her mother but was both a grown woman and budding teenager, could only take so much of it. She twisted and squirmed until the woman had to release her and she was free to take a few steps back, up onto the Sailer.

"Mom," she'd finally kicked her bad pronunciation, "I need to go. Sha-Mo and the others are waiting for me at the Knot."

They had left three days before to prepare to receive the young fire bender once she arrived. If she arrived.

Lien tried to shake those thoughts out of her head.

"I worry," Shuya confessed, smiling up at her daughter. They would be following her in three more days, weather providing. Weather proving, she would make it to the Knot without dying alone in the dune, wasting away, suffocating on the sand. Burning steadily thought her bodies supply of water…

She had to stop thinking about this.

There was no backing down. If she did then she would always be a child in the eyes of her tribe and her family. If she did she would be trailing after everyone for the rest of her life. Giving up was worse than failure.

"I will be fine, Mom. Just don't forget to come after me," she requested.

Shuya nodded down at her and pulled back, pushing herself up higher. It was getting hard with her stomach bulging with a new pregnancy. Another bastard, this one from a young man trying to get from the Omashu to Gaoling. The man had been so lost it wasn't even funny.

They had set him straight and he had spent the night with her tribes men. One night turned into a week, turned into a month, and now he was learning to adapt and preparing to become a father. Lien didn't much care for him, but as long as he didn't try to enforce rules upon her she wasn't going to kick up a fuss. He made Shuya happy so it was okay.

"I won't," she promised, stepping back so Lien could get by and to her sailer, brand new and made by the girl herself. It was a long, hard task, another part of the Coming of Age tradition. It was solid and light, the way it had to be to fly across the sands of her home. If she was lucky it wouldn't explode the second she tried to take off.

If that happened, she would be making the trip on foot.

Lien hopped up on her Sailer and braced her feet in the notches she'd made, custom for her own unique style. There was a sail, but that was for when she was sailing with others, and when she had to rest in the shade during the middle of the day.

Solo sailing was the most difficult thing for anyone to do.

When there was more than one person someone could take over the actual movement, and another could keep track of the direction they were going in. Solo sailing meant you had to bend and navigate at the same time.

It was going to be hard.

Lien was scared. She liked this life, in some ways she liked it more than one she had left. She didn't want to die again.

It was not death she feared. It was starting over again. She didn't know that she could do it again.

So, to avoid that, she was going to live.

Her feet settled into the hard notches, her eyes leveled on the horizon. She took a breath, and as she let it out she struck behind her, palm open, and sent the Sailer gliding over the sand. Lien dared not look back until after she was sure that they were out of view.

On she went, her eyes on the horizon, the compass, the sun high above her.

They started growing wider when the edges of her vision started to change. She didn't notice it as fast as she should have. It was because the sun was setting, dipping low over the edges in the west. Fire across the grains of the Si Wong.

It came from the east. Too fast, too hard, and she had too little warning before the storm was upon her.

She yanked hard on the rudder, twisting the sailer to the west, pouring more fire behind her until she could feel the cloth on her hand starting to singe. Still, no matter how much power she shoved into the fire it wasn't enough. The sand slammed into her.

Lien braced herself onto the sailer. Her knuckles were white beneath the cloth, she was sure. Sand whipped viciously at the girls face, splitting into what little skin was left to the elements. She hissed, and tried to hang on, managing not to be thrown off when the sand surged and bucked beneath herm wind lifting and tearing at her brand new Sailer, scoring the sides and tipping it up as it tore through the dunes bellow her.

Lien gripped the wood so hard it was a miracle it didn't splinter into a million pieces.

Her sailer was thrown up off of the ground, into the air. The sand shredded through the air like a high wave in the ocean, arching above her. Lien's eyes grew wide, panic seeped into her core.

She had never believed when people described horrific events slowing down. Hell, when she had died it had happened in a matter of seconds, no slowing down about it. One second she was there, the next she was thrown out of her seat, and by the time ten were up she had died.

When the sand around her slowed and her mind took in more than it should have been able to she was understandably confused. The confusion was replaced with instinct and memory, twisting her limbs around her. Fire was traded for raw heat that wrapped itself around her exploded, sending a wave out around her and her sailer.

She fell from the sailer, something struck her head and the world disappeared into black.

* * *

She couldn't have been asleep for long. Or else she would have been dead again.

Something heavy was on her left leg. It was dark, she couldn't see anything. There was no sun above her. Not even the stars.

The right half of her face and her right arm hurt something fierce, along with most of her right calf and her food.

Lien sat up and tried to move her leg but it was caught. Groping around shoed her that it was her sailer, not badly charred and smelling of burn wood, that had her stuck. When her hands touched the ground she also noted that it was not sand that cushioned her fall but smooth, rounded glass. A slow creeping wetness down her cheek told her than she was bleeding from her head.

Understanding dawned, accompanied by a worrisome lack of fear.

She was trapped in a bubble of glass.

If she wasn't probably low on air Lien would have laughed aloud. She had been reincarnated into the Avatar world, and now she had trapped herself in a bubble. It was hilarious, truly. Ironic.

Or was that irony?

What was irony?

It wasn't rain or your wedding day, or a free ride when you've already paid. Not the good advice that you just didn't take.

Her humming came to a stop when her head started pounding harder.

She needed to escape. First thing first, and easiest, was to free her leg from under her Sailer. She stood, wobbly. If nothing else she hadn't broken her leg, so that was some small blessing. Her feet, covered in cloth, slipped around on the uneven surface of her sanctuary. Her prison.

At least she knew which way was up. Gravity was pretty clear.

That meant that she needed to get out. Which was easier said than done.

Lien dared not light up a fire, it would eat up the air too quickly. So she had to do this bling. Using her hands she navigated from one end to the other, stumbling over her somehow-still-solid sailer she found the limits of her bubble. It was bigger than she'd first assumed. So she had a little more time.

The girl somehow managed to clamber up on top of her sailer, balancing precariously, to press her hands against the top of the bubble. She knew how to get out. It was going to have to be done fast though, or she would suffocate in seconds.

Lien breathed in, held it, and focused. There was no fire to eat away at her air supply, only heat that slowly pushed a glow into the glass at her finger tips. She spread the heat out, over the shield until the top was glowing in an oval large enough for her sailer to fit thought.

A breath out.

Another in.

It was starting to get stale.

With fear finally setting in and gripping her heart so hard she thought it would squish the girl pushed, harder than she thought she could, sending a hard wave of heat and fire exploding away from her hands, up, up, up until light exploded down into her eyes, sending her screaming to the bottom of her bubble.

At least this time she didn't pass out. She was free to gulp in new air, desperate for the freshness of the sandy above ground.

Once she could finally see she got to work, positioning her sailer and setting up the sail she did not use.

Sand Sailers were made to be light and maneuverable, hers hardly weighed anything at all, making her task all the easier. Once it was pointing upwards, towards the surface, she waited until the newly glazed pathway was no longer red hot.

Balanced carefully she lit a small jet from her left hand, towards the cloth, until it was lifting like an air balloon. That wasn't enough to get her moving, she knew, and compensated with a blast to the floor, sending her shooting up. The combined momentum sent her rocketing through the tunnel she'd made of glass, into the air outside.

She separated from her sailer and they both went falling to the ground, in opposite directions. The sand was kind enough give at least a little when she impacted.

She was breathing hard, hurting all over, and filled with a survivors euphoria. She was even lucky enough to land in the shade.

Shade.

Where in the hell was their shade in the desert?

Amber eyes stared up at the sky as this question wrapped around her brain. A few seconds later they were met with a furry little face with bright, unblemished turquoise.

Oh.

She sat up, wincing at the everything. There wasn't a single part of her that didn't ache or sting. The pain on her right side was burns from her glass. Her face was sliced by sand and impact. Her bones whined deep underneath her skin. Groaned. Cried.

She sat up and the little Seeker pulled away from her before she could knock into its chin. Sitting in front of her, rising up through the sand, was a tower.

At least answered some of her questions about when she was. The Seeker made a soft whine at her, alerting Lien to the fact that she was breathing in copper. Her face coverings were soaked almost entirely in her blood.

"Hello," she greeted softly. The little canine cocked its head, ears perked up. Lien smiled a little. She had always loved dogs.

The Library loomed high above her. It was too good of an opportunity to miss out on, so she went to her Sailer, gathered up some rope and a bag of her good, probably mostly destroyed by then, and threw the rope up, into the window of the tower.

If nothing else, sitting in the window would give her some shade.

She climbed up, a much harder task with her aches and pains, so she could perch on the sill of the window and get a good look around. This would be fine, she could wait until night fell and started making repairs on her sailer.

Lien found herself jealous of the Knowledge Seeker, who trotted right up the side of the building like it was nothing. She decided to call him Peter.

A look down and she knew, knew that she had to see more. The engravings on the wall were just too much to resist. The young girl secured her rope and dropped down, a bit faster than she should have thanks to her failing strength. Getting back up would be a bitch and a half.

She landed quietly, turning this way and that to try and see all there was. The Professor had no been wrong, it was truly an amazing work of art, architecture beyond anything she had ever encountered before, a wonder of any world. It left her breathless and star struck.

Movement behind her alerted the girl to the presence of the spirit who created the place and she spun on her heel, a smidge too fast for her probable concussion, to see the massive owl towering above her.

Lien cocked her head slightly.

"Are you Wan Shi Tong?" she asked, "Creator of the world's most vast Library, He Who Knows One Thousand Things?" Flattery would get you everywhere. Be it a merchant or an ancient spirit.

The owl looked down at her, his dark eyes unwavering.

"I am. It has been some time since a human last visited my library. Tell me, young sand bender, what have you come here seeking?"

She wasn't being turned away so it was before Zhao arrived. Or at least, before the Siege of the North.

Lien bowed deeply to the great spirit before her. "I come seeking knowledge on medicine, and on fire bending." There was no point in lying to an all knowing spirit.

Her words seemed to draw him up. "Medicine is a noble cause. However, fire and destruction, are not. They are in vast opposition."

The girl sucked in a deep breath and stood higher, her chin lifted. She was burned and bloody, hardly presentable and hardly one who should give this speech, yet the words fell smoothly from her lips.

"With respect, Great Spirit, you are wrong." His head tilted in that funny way only an owls could. "Fire is not simple destruction. Yes, it can be used to harm, but it is just as necessary for life as water, and air. Fire purifies and gives room for new life to grow where old life choked itself and everything around it. Fire is passion, the driving force behind evolution and the need to progress in this world. Fire is _life_."

"Is that so?" he drawled. "What is it you do with fire, if not destroy?"

It was a good thing that she had thought to bring her bag. Lien pulled it out in front of her and rummaged through until she had a handful of intact, perfect statues. She lifted for the owl to see.

"I create things of beauty, Great Wan Shi Tong. Now I seek to improve myself and better my abilities, so I might heal as well."

"Fire cannot heal," he said slowly, like she was foolish. Non the less he seemed very fixated on her little trinkets.

Lien tapped her teeth together before she started talking again. She needed to phrase this correctly.

"The human body is made of water, mostly, however it is controlled with energy, and electricity. Both of those are aspects of fire. I believe that if I can learn to create lightning, in small, controlled amounts, I may be able to, to jump start a system stalled," she tried to explain, rolling her hands as she spoke. It had been on her mind for a long time now.

Wan Shi Tong made a strange sound she could not identify. "You are speaking the truth," he seemed to realize. With a wave of his wing Peter came trotting around the corner, up to the girl in the middle of the hall. "He will show you where to find what you seek."

Lien bowed again, lower this time.

"Thank you, Wise One. Please, accept these small tokens as my gratitude," she offered the small glass trinkets, a coyote, a hummingbird, and a cactus blossom. They were small, but beautiful in craftsmanship. They must have been good enough, for they were swept away by his wing.

The Owl watched her turn to his spirit and pad after it, favoring one leg. She could feel his eyes on her back and dared not meet them.

Idly, she wondered if they had a first aid kit in the library.


	5. Chapter 4: Loud

**Next chapter here we go!**

 **Reviews;**

 **akagami hime chan: It's definitely unique! I doubt anyone else in the world is going to be able to do what she does. I'm glad you liked the beginning, I didn't feel like sticking her right where the action was. So I waited a few chapters. Until this one, actually.**

 **SNicole: Thank you for that strangely passive aggressive input. I'll try to stay original.**

 **Guest from March 19th: Thanks, I'll try!**

 **Darth Nefurious: I think I can manage a little more, if you promise to keep reviewing ;)**

* * *

Three year olds were loud.

Lien couldn't remember herself ever being such a whiny little snot, in this life or the last. It was grating on her nerves. Little Kyu would scream her little lungs out at the slightest provocation, shattering the peace of the desert. What was more, she never sleeped. Slept. Lien was too tired to remember what language was.

As soon as Kyu discovered words she had been a terror, ordering those three times her size and burying them if they didn't listen to her. Lien was good as a fire bender, but Kyu was a prodigy as an earth bender. It was as if she was a part of the desert herself.

Shin Yun, Kyu's father, was as proud as a peacock in the face of his daughter's tantrums. Declared that she was going to be a leader one day.

With a mutter of 'tyrant', Lien would declare that she was going sailing.

After her first adventure on her own she had become enamored with the art of solo sailing, and infatuated with the Library. Every opportunity she had she was disappearing for days at a time to spend there, surrounded by books and Seekers, and occasionally Wan Shi Tong himself.

He didn't say as much, but she thought that he had missed having people visit his library.

It was so big she could get lost in it. Literally. If she wasn't so good at keeping her bearing she would have never found her way out that first time. Peter was a help of course, and a dear companion on her search for knowledge. She adored the little fox, and brought him treats whenever she could. Jerky, spiced fruits, and dried vegetables were not rarities in the Si Wong, but he appreciated them any ways.

Lien appreciated the vast knowledge she was amassing. Over the years she had used what was in the library to refine and hone her craft, never practicing around anything that might catch fire. She knew a dozen forms and a hundred dances she could perform, to try and amuse her little sister.

Perhaps her absence would have been noticed more if not for Kyu, but such thoughts were not worth dwelling on. Shuya always loved her, more than anything else in the world.

Kyu, on the other hand, hated her. The only time she liked her sister was when she was threatening to turn into a pile of ash.

Shin Yun was not against or for his step daughter. Daughter? They had a working relationship. He understood that she would not take unreasonable orders and she accepted that she had to share her mother now. It was neither strained nor comfortable. They were neutral.

Her aunt, on the other hand, disliked Shin Yun. She had a passion for children and seeing one run so wild, and run Shuya so ragged, almost had the non-bender up in arms over it. She had no respect for the man or the fact that he refused to step up and take a guiding hand in his daughter's life, especially when she was so intent on making others do her bidding.

Ghashiun was still a little mama's boy, doing anything that Yulduz asked of him as soon as the question was posed. He loved his mother like no other. Respected her beyond even what he paid his father, who let it go as long as he wasn't causing trouble. He was so happy with her in his life that, when she eventually passed away, he was devastated. Broken.

Mischief became his one companion.

Lien had better company. Between her mother, her friends in the tribe, and her fuzzy companions the girl was never alone for long, unless she was seeking solitude. If that was the case she was getting very good as sitting down, closing her eyes, and getting rid of the world around her.

Though sometimes when she did so for too long sparks of color would start creeping into her vision and she would have to leave, before she started to dream strange dreams. It was never her intention to fall asleep, but it did happen.

And the dreams she had were truly, truly bizarre.

* * *

Four year olds were loud.

Or so Lien had told him. Wan Shi Tong doubted that he had ever had any four year olds in his library, and so could neither confirm nor deny this information. He took is to be truth. Lien, after all, was not a liar.

Not like many humans were proving to be these days. It made the owls blood boil with the thought.

Something else seemed to be boiling in the Library as well. Or at the very least heating up.

With a flap of his great wings the spirit was off the stone and into the air, soaring through the high arches of his palace of knowledge, towards the crossing Bridgeway's where Lien made her entrance when she stopped by.

This day the intersection glowed softly with fire, far from any documents that might catch on fire. A consideration of his most popular patron on this midnight visit.

When he landed on the bridge his head tilted to far it may have been upside down for a bit there.

"What," he began slowly, "Are you doing, to my Knowledge Seeker?"

It was a far question. He couldn't think of any reason why she would be kneeling next to one that had laid itself on the ground at her knees, running her hand back and forth in the air above the small creature's body. Fire floated between her palm and his fur, flickering with colors beyond the normal spectrum.

The fire faded with a long exhale of the girl. She had always kept the word she had given him when she arrived. That she did not intend to destroy.

Lien lifted her eyes to his own, a spark of amber against fathomless obsidian.

"Did you know that spirits are made almost entirely out of energy?" she quizzed. Her hands slid around, catching a stick sitting at her side and a small book at her lap. It was already filled with notes and now, before his eyes, she began a diagram.

"I did," he confirmed, lifting his head to watch her form the shape of the Seeker still on the tiled floor. Its eyes were closed, and it seemed perfectly as peace.

"I've been mapping the way the energy moves inside of them," she nodded towards the small creature, "and inside of humans too. I found some chi diagrams, well, he did, and I poked around with it and played with some of my cousins, and it's really interesting. I found out that if I concentrate I can feel the energy moving inside of them, and even straighten out it's flow if somethings gone wrong."

She went on, telling him of all her experiments while the lead slid after the strokes of her hand. Slowly, her words fell away. The spirit lifted his gaze along with the girl and his Seeker to the sky. Where the moon had once hung, full and pure, now floated a perfect circle of red.

Lien sucked in a sharp breath and je felt his feathers ruffle where she moved to his side, pressing into it along with the Seeker. They were joined with more, dozens of foxes pressing in. They could feel what he did, see what was clear. The wrongness in the world. The balance destroyed.

"Oh _hell_ ," the little human breathed.

The owl snorted disdainfully. "Not hell," he snapped, " _Humans_."

* * *

Five year olds were loud.

They were demanding and bossy and by then Lien had had enough of them. Ghashuin wasn't much better. He was a teenager, filled with anger at the world over the death of his mother. He stole and tricked and lied. He gave all of their people a bad name and Lien was as sick of him as she was of Kyu.

Shuya was a strong woman who loved her family, her daughters, and her husband but she had started to grow weary of the lack of discipline coming from Shin Yun. It had arguments spouting about almost everything.

Lien made a point to stay as far from the conflict as she could. She hated fighting, and planned to avoid it for as long as she could.

Often times that meant going to the Library. She had spent years there, learning all sorts of things. Different types of plants, the history of the world, fire bending tricks. She was even getting to the point where she could create the sparks that she had so desired upon her first entry.

It was nice there. The spirits were friendly and enjoyed her presence, Wan Shi Tong himself had even deigned lower himself to directly teaching her Pai Sho. It was a confusing game and she was not fond of it, seeing as she lost every game she played against the spirits, but it was something to pass the time and to her, something special.

She was watching a game in the corner of the Misty Palms Tavern when she felt new comers arrive. Two benders, three non, and someone with the most energy she had ever felt coursing through his veins. It was enough that she turned confused eyes away from the match to watch a quartet walk into the building. Two girls, two boys, and flying lemur.

Her heart sunk and skipped at once.

On the night of the death of the moon she had finally understood when she had arrived, and she finally knew who her father was. Not just some fire nation soldier who happened across the desert and died within it. He _was_ there to find something. And he had disappeared because he'd found it.

Lien frowned at the Team as they made their way through the establishment, running into the professor who had been hunting the sands for months. She would have helped him, but after the lunar eclipse Wan Shi Tong had made her swear not to show another where his Library was.

If they were here, that same Library would soon be gone.

It was a necessary loss, she knew. After all, how else would they know about the Day of Black Sun? How else would they know when to launch the attack doomed to fail? Everything happened for a reason.

But maybe, just maybe, this didn't.

With a half formed plot in mind the young fire bender lifted to her feet and moved over to the door. If she knew her people someone would be outside already, looking at Appa. He would fetch a high price to anyone in the world, and the sand bender tribes were always looking for ways to better their lot.

It was a part of living in the desert. She was no more free of theft than any other, though she was also skilled enough to make fair money off of her crafts.

As she predicted there was already a gathering around, numerous eyes on the beast. One group of three was already next to him, testing how close they could get. She knew those three all to well.

"Ghashiun!" she barked, moving forwards. The sand twisted beneath her feet, sinking her steps down. Appa made some low groan into the air, trying to move away from the encroaching poachers. She felt the immense energy of the Avatar moving out of the business and mentally congratulated herself on being crafty. Too much time with the Knowledge Seekers.

Her cousin turn to her and scowled, most of it hidden by his mask. Her face was in the same state, so they were reduced to glared and body language for physical communication.

"Go back inside, Lien, we're busy," he snapped, striding towards her. Very purposefully the girl put herself between her cousin and the Flying Bison.

"Busy getting into more trouble. We're doing well this year, there's no reason to bother with something like this. Go back to the Commune, I'm sure your father is looking for you right now," her arms crossed over her chest, defensive. She wasn't moving.

Ghashiun snorted, the sound muffled. "What, like your mom is looking for you?"

His harsh words made the girl flinch back. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"At least I still have one."

The air around them went totally still before Ghashiun threw a wave of sand at her with a shout of rage. Lien threw herself to the side, rolling on the sand and back to her feet in one smooth movement, just in time to push her hands in front of her, erupting with raw heat and glazing a new twist that her cousin tried to wrap around her. Before he could continue his onslaught his friends grabbed his arms, dragging him forcibly away from his clansman.

She was left standing in a surprising elegant vortex of glass.

"Lien?" It was the professor. They had spoken numerous times since his arrival in the desert months before, about how to not die, about the best way to translate old languages. He was nice enough. A bit eccentric.

The young fire bender stood up straight and turned to see the professor, standing next to Appa, with the rest of the Gaang standing around him, staring at her. Or at least in her general direction.

It occurred to her that it was a good thing she had used heat instead of fire, or that might have been the opposite of productive.

The glowing glass was cooling steadily as she leapt over the edges of the new contemporary art, managing to only touch it once, not long enough to burn her.

"Hello Professor," she greeted, dusting herself off. She really hoped that none of them understood how glass was made. Given that it wasn't often used in this era she figured she was at least a little bit safe.

"That was quite the show, is everything alright?" he asked, sizing her up. The others were watching her as well, curious. If she wasn't used to living in a desert she might have broken into a sweat. She was so nervous. She wanted to keep her library, badly. It was her favorite place on earth.

Lien waved her hand as flippantly as she could with it weighted with her bandages. "Fine, fine. Ghashiun just wanted to figure out how much the bison was worth."

"Worth?" Aang asked, frowning at her. She didn't blame him. Appa was his best friend, after all.

"Yeah, you know. How much he could sell him for," Lien elaborated. Damn. She really hadn't thought this all the way through. How was she going to invite herself along?

"But Appa isn't for sale!" Aang looked horrified. Lien merely shrugged.

"My cousin is trouble," was all she could really say.

She felt bad about it. Ghashiun was family, no matter how much of a jerk he could be. She shouldn't be throwing him under the bus like that for her own personal gain.

Although in the long run, it might work out better for him.

Switching tracks smoothly Lien looked up at Appa, who was much bigger than she first expected. He was massive, and his eyes were wide, locked onto her.

"Professor, what are you doing with a Flying Bison?" she quizzed, letting her gaze fall to the man. She trusted the sand to cloud Toph's 'vision'. Hopefully her home would not fail her.

Just as she had expected, Zei's face lit up with his excitement.

The man had always reminded her of some kind of puppy, easy to get the attention of and hard to dissuade of chasing something shiny. This time was no different from any other.

"Oh, this magnificent creature is going to help us find Wan Shi Tong's Library. Isn't that wonderful?" he was grinning like a fool.

Behind her cloth Lien smiled warmly. This poor man, so obsessed with knowledge just for the sake of it. It was his one true love and he knew so much already. The Archeologist was just too curious for his own good. The fact made the girl a bit sad. He was going to be going to the Spirit World soon, if she didn't do anything about it.

Her mouth was open, about to try and weasel her way into the adventure when the time was saved by Zei.

"Would you like to come too?"


	6. Chapter 5: Library

**Here we go again!**

 **Reviews;**

 **Not-Gonna-Update: You're very welcome! Things will finally start picking up speed.**

 **SNicole25: Yeah, but at the same time he's from Ba Sing Se. There is no war there, there would be no reason for him to care about something like that. Katara, also possible but I don't remember seeing much glass in avatar at all, the water tribes especially seemed pretty unlikely to have it.**

 **Darth Nefurious: I'm glad you feel that way! I've actually managed to find four more, some better than others in terms of depth and thought.**

 **CarlaAether: Nope, fraid not! You are, however, right about the lightning and her age, like you were right about Zhao, smarty pants. Thanks so much for your kind words, I really appreciate them!**

 **: I'll take that as quite the accomplishement!**

* * *

"You're going to die if you do that."

It was the first thing Lien had said during the trip. She had sat herself down at the head of the bison so she could listen to Appa bleat up at Zei's questionnaire, and keep her eyes on the other's. She had been watching them watch the world around them, searching for the Library that she loved so much.

Sokka had stopped removing his shirt, darkened with sweat, when her voice cut through the dry air around them. Blue caught gold and he frowned, shifting up higher on his knees.

"What do you mean?" he demanded. Katara was looking at her too, apparently no less fond of the idea of Sokka dying than Sokka was of Sokka dying.

Lien sighed. Pointed to the sky.

"If you don't cover your skin, it's going to roast off. Simple as that. Do you think my people were all these layers because the shade keeps us cool? There's nowhere in the world where the sun is hotter. Keep as much of your skin covered as you can," she advised.

"Roast off?" the poor boy looked sick. Lien almost felt bad for him. She nodded sharply, and shifted to look over her shoulder.

"That's the way this desert works. You should be covering everything you have," Lien informed him. The water tribe boy frowned.

"I was going to cover my head." Lien didn't know if he was defensive or upset. Pouting. The boy was dramatic but he was confusing her right then. With a hum the girl shifted and pushed her lower coverings down so she could un-wind the top half of her protective clothes from her head from around her jaw. She heard sputtering from the other part of the oval.

"You're a girl!" Sokka blurted, prompting the desert dweller to stare at him, bewildered for a long minute.

"Well, yes," she said it so simply. There was no other way she could say it, she was surprised. It rarely occurred to her, who spent all of her time with her own people and magic animals, that to outsiders it was hard to tell what gender the people of the Si Wong were. Their clothing was loose and it covered everything that it was possible to cover, from the tip of the head to the soles of the feet, though those were sometimes left bare for earth bending.

Beyond that one was, to outsiders, indistinguishable from the other.

She let her hair loose with the removal of her top layer, which she separated into four of the five twisted clothes it began as, and passed those to her unprotected companions. She herself manager to make due by pulling the part that normally covered her mouth and nose up over her head, and replaced it with the fifth piece. It was thinner than she would have liked, but it was better than nothing.

The rest of her party accepted the gifts, some with more bewilderment than others.

If nothing else, Sokka's antics had managed to get a laugh out of Toph. The sadistic little girl.

Once she settled down, silence reigned once more. Or, as much silence as was possible. The air whipping around them provided quite a bit of background noise. Not that Lien was complaining. She'd always wanted to fly, but she never had the money for a plane ticket before, and there was no flying in her new life.

Unless you were the Avatar.

Lien closed her eyes, leaned back on the saddle. It was so nice. Much cooler up here than it was on a ground. A bit harder to breath if she was being honest.

The quiet was starting to grow uncomfortable.

"So," Lien drawled, "What are you kids doing after the Library anyways? The Avatar, shouldn't you be focusing on more, ah, _elemental_ things? Or going off to fight the Fire Lord or, whatever it is Avatar's do?" She needed an opening. This would work. Hopefully.

Sokka looked to his sister, to Aang, and received shrugs from both of them.

"We've been trying to find a map of the fire nation. We were hoping to get on in the library," the water tribe boy explained. She didn't know why that required such unspoked debate. She was an Earth Kingdom citizen, through and through. She didn't even look Fire Nation, aside from her eyes.

"The Library might have one but if you're taking a trip you'd want to buy rather that borrow," she advised, "Spirits don't take kindly to theft. " She tried not to sound accusing. She of all people shouldn't be saying that.

"Well if we knew where to find one, we wouldn't be in the middle of the desert," Sokka snapped.

Lien narrowed her eyes at him. She did not appreciate his tone. Not one bit.

"I would be willing to bet that the Beetle Headed Merchants would have one," she snipped right back.

Toph sat a little straighter. "Beetle Headed Merchants?" she repeated, quizzically.

"Mmhmm," Lien nodded before remembering that the girl couldn't see her. "They live here in the desert, alongside my people. Unlike we of the Sand, the Merchants use hard helmets shaped like poisonous beetles to protect themselves, and get around on Giant Rhinoceros Beetles instead of Sand Sailers. There are legends that suggest that their headpieces were first created in ancient times, when their ancestors lived underground and survived the attacks of giant gilacorns by disguising themselves sour beetles. Gilacorns are scavengers that eat everything else," she tacked on.

"If you do go to them just know that they're opportunistic as well as flexible. As long as you're fair they should be willing to cut a deal with you. They have settlements all over the Si Wong Desert, you'll know it's them by their red and black flag.

Actually," she went on, babbling now, "They go to the Misty Palms Oasis quite a bit, and consider that cantina you stopped in to be their base. Once we're done here, it should be pretty easy to get a map from them, as long as you don't mind trading and bargaining. "

That had been much more information than she intended to give up. Who could blame her, the girl was nervous, though she was able to hide it well enough. Toph might have an idea of it but the little earth bender didn't look particularly inclined to call her on her emotions.

"That would be great," Katara smiled at her, a nice look. The girl was pretty, in a sort of soft, foreign way. Her eyes were what stood out the most. Lien had never imagined she would miss blue eyes until she was in a land without them. Her people had brown, or green. She alone possessed shining gold.

Blue was a nice change.

"So," this was it, "If you're going to fire nation, are you waiting for the Day of Black Sun?"

There was beat of silence. Something in her voice rang out, catching the attention of all besides the professor. Blue eyes narrowed at her.

"What's 'the Day of Black Sun'?" Sokka asked. Lien was aware that she had all of their attention now, including Momo, who had crept a few steps closer. Lien produced a small bag of Hanza fruit and offered a few to the little lemur. He took one, sniffed it, and started nibbling once it passes inspection.

Lien thought carefully how to explain it.

"Obviously the Avatar is a water bender, but are either of you…" Katara raised her hand in admittance and Lien nodded towards her, "Cool, cool. Were you water bending a few months ago, when the moon turned red?"

Katara nodded, her eyes darkening. Sokka lowered his eyes to his knees. Lien had almost forgotten that he had been in love with Yue. The poor boy. Her heart squeezed in sympathy.

"Then you know that a lunar eclipse shuts off water bending. A solar eclipse does the same thing for fire bending, but only a full one."

Lien pointed to the sky.

"There are actually solar eclipses happening all the time, but most of them are so small they can't be seen, and only weaken fire benders a little. This year, on the," shit, shit, what was the day? "First day, I believe, of the eighth month, there's going to be the first full solar eclipse in I think a couple hundred years."

They were staring at her again. Staring hard.

Son of a bitch, what was she getting herself into?

"How do you know so much about fire benders?" Sokka demanded. Lien wasn't surprised that he was so suspicious. There wasn't much else she could think to so so, as casually as she could, the girl lifted a hand, palm upwards, and lit a small fireball just above it.

"It takes one to know one."

* * *

All in all, they had taken it well. Or at least, they hadn't thrown her off of the Bison. That was a good sign, wasn't it?

"Are you coming in with us Toph?" Lien heard herself ask amongst the arrangements for Appa to stay above ground.

The little blind girl snorted and waved a hand in front of her face. "Books don't really do it for me."

The fire bender cocked her head, eyes measuring the younger girl. Her mind swept into the library, and their far reaching corners. If she wasn't wrong, there were a few in the third story, left wing shelves that would be right up her alley…

"You can't read braille?"

Now they all looked confused. She really should stop before she got too mixed up in all this. It was a bad idea to be there in the first place but hopefully her earlier words would save her Library.

"What's 'braille'?" her nose scrunched up with the word. Strange to think that this little girl was the greatest earth bender in history.

"It's reading designed for the blind. Raised bumps on pages of thick parchment, or slabs of stone. You read it with your fingers instead of your eyes."

"That doesn't exist."

Sokka's outburst earned a befuddled frown from the desert dweller. There must have been something about it that prompted him to go on for his mouth didn't stay shut for longer than a few seconds, in his own defense.

"I've never seen anything like that," he proclaimed, earning a snort from Lien. She gazed at the young warrior, unimpressed.

"I suppose you've seen everything then," she drawled. "It's like there are people in the world who know things different than you. Sokka the Wise, the One Who Knows All," she couldn't help mocking him. On top of it the sight of his face turning bright red was wonderful.

"I didn't say that! Stop twisting my words you- you- Word Twister!" he fumbled to come up with an accurate insult. Lien didn't laugh with him along with the others, though she did smile, an easy thing. Sokka, whether he was trying to be or not, was a funny person.

"We'll find you a dictionary while we're in there," she promised the flustered boy before turning and leaping up.

She had figure out a while ago that she could boost herself pretty high up with a fire powered leap. Like air bending, but more likely to roast your ass. She and Aang landed at about the same time, while Katara and Sokka climbed in by rope, a technique that Lien had given up on ages ago. She tipped in, using the same technique to soften her landing.

Her clothes were so covered in dust and sand they were practically inflammable, so she didn't worry about catching. Melting was a more likely occurrence.

She looked around, taking in the familiar sights while Zei raved about the architecture, the only person besides Lien who seemed to care about it. Toph would probably appreciate the feeling of them, if she hadn't decided in the end to stay outside.

Children.

The sound of footsteps echoed around and while Lien and the professor looked perfectly at ease, unconcerned, the other three grabbed the pair and forcibly ripped them into the shadows.

Lien fought against the grip that Sokka gotten on her, much more viciously than the professor struggled against Aang's dragging hold. This was both useless and stupid. The owl would notice them. She could feel him standing at the intersection of elevated pathways. He was going to find them.

"I know you're back there," the old owl intoned. Zei, grinning like a kid in a candy store, went sprinting out to gush over the owl. For her part Lien smashed her foot into Sokka's shin, earning a shout of offense while she ripped herself out of her arms.

She came walking around the corner, right into the narrowed gaze of Wan Shi Tong. The owl looked disappointed, at least to someone who had known him for five years.

"Lien," he greeted, "I see you've brought more humans to my library."

Guilt curled in her stomach at the look on the faces of the humans and the spirit. She shifted uncomfortably where she was.

"You knew where the Library was located? And you never told me?" Zei asked, hurt coloring his voice.

"It's not like that," she rushed to defend, lifting her hands up, "Wan Shi Tong made me promise not to tell anyone where it was after Tui was killed. I couldn't tell you, I made a promise."

"One that it appears you broke," the spirits voice was sharp. As pointed as his deadly beak.

The girl turned to him, her face twisting in a sort of desperation. "I didn't! They invited me to come along while they looked, I never gave directions at all. It was him that found it," she pointed right at Sokka. "I would never betray your trust, Wise One. Please believe me."

Wan Shi Tong levelled her with a Look. Long, soul penetrating, until he seemed satisfied.

"Very well. There is still one problem. You are humans," he said, eyes sweeping over the Gaang. "And humans are no longer permitted in my Library."

"What about her?" Sokka demanded, pointing at Lien accusingly. The girl took a step away from his outward swinging arm, before she was struck. By accident or on purpose the girl couldn't be sure.

The owl lowered his eyes again to the young fire bender. Who pursed her lips in a sort of annoyance. She didn't like this. Not at all.

"Lien has been a patron of my Library for many years. She is an exception."

Warmth heated inside the girl's heart, spreading out into her limbs and drawing her mouth into a small, soft smile. It was wonderful to know that she was welcome in the Library, and that its owner would stick up for her.

"Well what about the rest of us?" Aang queried, "What do you have against human?" It was a fair question, but Lien was pretty sure she had already answered it when she was explaining why she couldn't just bring them all there.

The spirit scoffed. "Most humans only bother learning to gain an edge on other humans. Like that other fire bender who came here some decades ago, seeking to destroy his enemy." Wan Shi Tong shot forwards, forcing Sokka to bend back or have his eyes pecked out. "So, who are you trying to destroy?"

"What?" his voice actually cracked. The water tribe boy thrust his hands forwards, waving them frantically in front of himself. "No, no, no, no destroy. Ing. We're not into that."

Lien could feel the owl's attention move to her and the girl pointedly rolled her eyes. Sokka was the worst liar she had ever met. It was truly terrible, especially in front of someone like Wan Shi Tong. Not to mention totally useless.

"Then why have you come here?" Wan Shi Tong went on. His voice had softened almost imperceptibly.

Sokka struggled to come up with an answer, sweat breaking visibly across his brow. He finally settled on, "Knowledge for knowledges sake?" he even went so far as to shrug, as if he were helpless to the words coming out of his mouth.

"If you're going to lie to an all knowing spirit being, you should at least put some effort into it," Wan Shi Tong droned. Lien felt bad for the owl. It wasn't fair to him that his Library was being abused so forcibly by humans who only wanted to gain power. The girl was glad her father was lost in the spirit world or she would have tracked him down and burnt his face off for the pain he put her spirit friend through.

Lien was well aware that, whether he admitted to it or not, Wan Shi Tong felt at least partially responsible for the pain that Tui and La had gone through at the hands of Zhao. He could only imagine how it must feel for him. He loved knowledge above all else and he had brought his Library to this world to help humans better themselves and grow.

Instead, they chose to abuse the power that they learned, to hurt and destroy. To kill.

"I'm not lying!" Sokka lied. He reached behind him and grabbed Aang. Somehow. His arms had to have been made of elastic. "I'm here with the Avatar and he's the bridge between out worlds, he'll vouch for me! And uh, Lien too!" he proclaimed, moving to grab her as well.

The fire bender pushed his hand away with a sharp bark of disbelief. "Like hell I will. Sorry dude, but I'm not helping you pull the feathers over an owls eyes. I like having my own too much."

Sokka gaped at her, and drew himself up to shout before Aang's voice cut through.

"That's fine, I'll still vouch. We will not abuse the knowledge you have in your library good spirit, you have my word."

Behind them, Lien was steadily shaking her head in mourning. Son of a bitch. They knew what they needed to know, couldn't they leave already?

Owls were more forgiving that humans it seemed, for Wan Shi Tong agreed to let them inspect his vast collection of books and scrolls.

"On one condition."

The spirit lifted himself a smidge higher, showing a flash of glass that vanished back into his feathers just as quickly as it had appeared. Lien smiled. She had made him a small pendant of himself, and Wan Shi Tong had taken to wearing it on a wing. How it stayed there, the girl hadn't the faintest idea.

"To prove your worth as scholars, you have to contribute some worthwhile knowledge," he declared. Unsurprisingly, Zei was the first one to step up, proffering up a book. Then Katara, with her water bending scroll, and Aang, with his wanted poster. Wan Shi Tong barely accepted that, and Sokka butterfly knot was just a joke.

He looked to Lien when they were all through and it took her a minute to realize he was talking about her as well. The girl hummed softly in thought, closing her eyes to think back to her days in a more scientifically advanced world.

"The formula for finding the measurement of a single side of a triangle with a right angle is a2 plus b2 equals c2," she declared. Pythagorean Theorem, the easiest thing she had ever learned in her life. "Do you want that written down?"

Wan Shi Tong was staring down at her. "I was hoping for something more substantial," he confessed.

The girl hummed before she reached into one of the pouches on her middle. She was almost out of pages and she had transferred most of her findings to a secondary book already so…

She held out her journal to the great creature before her.

"These are all the things that I've learned about fire and energy bending, as well as notes on glass and desert flora and fauna," she declared, "Hand written, first edition copy, signed."

This must have been more what he was after for the book was swept right out of her fingers. If owls could smile this one certainly would not be.

"Enjoy the library," he said, and with all the grandeur Lien had come to expect from him Wan Shi Tong's wings snapped open and he left, diving over the side of the railing. The humans dispersed, some looking after the spirit before moving on. Lien herself followed behind Sokka.

She was not losing her Library to his dishonesty.


	7. Chapter 6: The Desert

**Since I forgot to say before, most of the names for the Sandbenders are based off of Uzbek names that I found floating around the internet, as well as a smattering of Tatar. The reason I decided to use them was because Yulduz, a canon character, has a name of that origin. Or so I assume, seeing as there's an Uzbek actress by that name, Yulduz Uzmonova.**

 **Darth Nefurious: Well it's not really very advanced mathematics. The Pythagorean Theorem is at least 2500 years old, probably older as evidence exists that it was discovered, and later lost, by the Babylonians over a thousand years before Pythagoras was even born. Given that we've seen that in the Avatar world at this time they're about to enter the industrial revolution, meaning that for any of that to exist there has to already be a good deal of knowledge based on the world, including geometry and physics, which are used in a million different ways including construction. Based on that and what we see of the elegance of Wan Shi Tongs Library it isn't a stretch to say that he would already know the formula before Lien even said it.**

 **SNicole25: Why would she do that? All she cares about is the Library at this point.**

 **Ayumi. Furitomanaku: Thank you! I love Sokka.**

 **MrCcoz: Thank you, you will!**

 **YoYo: Thanks! I hope this meets your expectations.**

 **JaimeTheMonster: I'm glad that you're liking it! I'm afraid that Appa is in for a bit of a hassle again.**

 **amgs: Thank you so much for saying that! I've been trying hard on this one, it's good to know that it's not in vein.**

* * *

Sokka was twitchy.

Not only was a he a bad liar but he was a truly terrible thief. Lien caught his wrists before he could push a scroll into his bag. Her eyes were hard, dead serious.

"There's a limit on borrowing from this library," she warned, "ten pieces can be taken out at once, for three weeks. You have to sign them out at the registrar downstairs before you go. If you're not back to return them the Seekers will come to collect them."

She would only assume that the reason they hadn't gone to get the scrolls Sokka took in the series was because the library was no longer in the physical plane.

"So what?" he demanded, yanking his hand away from hers to stuff the scroll into his bag. "Are you trying to say something?"

Yes. He was a liar and cheat, a thief and he knew it.

The fire benders shook her head. "No. But you should know to be careful what you pick. If you're going to the Fire Nation, you're going to have a hell of a time getting back here for anything else. You should be careful what you decide to take with you."

"Right," he narrowed his eyes at her, "I wouldn't want anything to be _burnt_."

Lien bristled in offense. It wasn't hard to see what he was implying. Katara and Aang were watching from not far off, and neither seemed overly inclined to defend her against the young warrior. Her lips drew into a thin line.

"Of course not," she snipped tersely.

At last Aang appeared at their side, slipping between the two. It was Lien he faced, no Sokka.

"Speaking of, can you show us where the Fire Nation stuff is?" he asked. The girl felt her face fall.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," she had her mouth open to explain when Sokka jumped in, stepping closer. Was he trying to threaten her?

"And why not? Are you trying to defend them?"

Her teeth clicked together. Her temper flared but she kept it in check. This was no place to light his ass.

"Why would I defend people who burned down and entire section of the library?" she demanded hotly.

That, at least, drew them up short. She watched their expressions change, to horror and disbelief, then disappointment and anger. Lien clasped her hands behind her back to prevent them from curling into fists. Peter appeared at her side, sitting next to the girl and leaning on her leg. It was a small comfort.

"A whole section?" Sokka parroted, his eyes locked on her. Gold met blue and she nodded grimly.

"A fire bender came in here roughly seventeen years ago, shortly before I was born. He torn through the library, found out the mortal identities of the ocean and moon spirits, and burned down the section dedicated to the Fire Nation. There are still quite a few things left on fire bending, but those are far between and very specific, and none of them detail much about the country besides some of the traditions. I've gone through all of them at least twice," she confessed.

"That's horrible," Katara declared, "Why would anyone do that."

Lien arched a brow at the girl. "Why do you think? To keep people like you from doing the same thing he did. Using what was in those books and scrolls against his nation."

"If it was all burned down, how did you know about the Day of Black Sun?" Sokka demanded, suspicious again. She heart the small click of talons on tile and felt the warm existence of Wan Shi Tong. Eves dropping on them.

"A show was put on when I was young, detailing a number of occurrences in this world. One of them was Day of Black Sun. The only mention of it in here is charred piece of paper under glass. If there was anything else, it's gone now." Total truth. She still felt like she was betraying Wan Shi Tong somehow.

"We came all this way to come back with nothing," Sokka mourned. He was slumped, his eyes on the ground. Lien sighed and touched his shoulder, gently.

"Take a breath. Find a book. No trip is ever a waste unless you let it be," she declared, drawing her arm back to herself so she could bring out a piece of dried Jackalope. One animal that was the same in both worlds.

"Who said that?" Aang asked, looking around them at the books, as if it would be right next to them.

Lien smiled to herself. "I did." All of her time around knowledge spirits was making her philosophical. Perhaps one day she would right an actual book instead of personal notes on her accomplishments. Proof that she had existed. Had done something.

She knelt down, scratching the little Seeker behind his ears. Peter made a strange sound, vaguely canine, and pushing his cold nose up under her chin. He was a sweet creature. More than once he'd just followed her around the desert for no real reason.

The little spirit accepted the piece and leaned against the girl further. He was a sweet thing.

The group looked from her to each other before they started to spread out again, looking around. She must have said something right, at least.

Hours passed.

Lien stayed with the group for a while longer, until they had had enough and were packing in what they had decided to borrow. As the firebender had instructed, they checked out their books, and prepared to shimmy up the rope, save the professor, who seemed quite content when he was.

Lien hung back, a smile on her face, pleased as punch.

She could keep her library!

Claws clicked softly behind her on the tile and the girl turned to look up at Wan Shi Tong, a smile lighting her face more than her fire ever could. Her hands clasped behind her and she swung around cheerfully, rocking on the balls of her feet.

"Lien," he greeted, fathomless eyes lingering on the human. "I think it's time that I move my Library back where it belongs."

Her heart plummeted.

"What?" Lien didn't care about the crack in her voice. She loved this library, and the spirits that made it their homes. It was her favorite place in the world. It was peace and stability in a world that was always changing, she relied on it heavily.

"Humans are starting to come back. Not all of them will have the same intentions as you and the Professor. I will go back to the spirit world, and take this knowledge away from the reach of those that would use it for harm," he explained, his voice slow. She could tell that he had picked his words carefully, as he always did.

Lien bowed her head, pressing her lips together.

"I will miss you," she said quietly.

She didn't see the expression that lifted the owls face.

"You will be able to come back," he said, slowly. The girl stared at him like he had lost his mind.

"I'm not a spirit," she objected. Bewildered, she was. What was the owl talking about? If he took his Library back to the spirit world then only spirits and the spiritually enlightened would be able to visit it. She knew what she was, and she was neither of those things.

Wan Shi Tong towered over his, his head tilted in a way that it might have screwed off if he wasn't an owl. There was something in his dark, deep eyes that she couldn't pinpoint, couldn't understand. It was like a more intense version of the look you gave a child when they told you that the world was flat.

Lien did not like being looked at like that.

Not at all.

"We shall meet again," he said simply, turning and walking away, into the shadows of the Library.

Lien watched him go, confused and hurt.

It took her until she heard a ruckus from outside, a scream carried on the wind to pick up her heels. Surely her cousin wasn't stupid enough to follow them and take the bison anyways? Surely not. Please not.

Lien hoisted herself up on the ledge of the window and looked down, over the vast desert. Under her breath she cursed, long and low. There was sand, and people. A Lemur.

No bison.

"Shit on a fucking-" Lien cut herself off with a snarl under her breath and pitched herself off of the edge of the tower. She wanted to linger, to hold on to what little time she had left with her Library but there wasn't time. The Avatar and his friends were in her desert, without transportation.

They could die.

* * *

Lien didn't know which direction they were going in in the show, when they had stumbled upon the Sailer in the sand. A vague direction like that wouldn't do them much good. She had no idea at all. So she didn't try and wander as they had.

As they were, actually.

The girl crossed her arms, staring at the backs of the moving children as they left her behind. They were stubborn and stupid. Just because it was her cousin that had stolen Appa didn't mean that she supported him, or wanted anything to do with those actions.

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to cry.

The Professor had decided to stay longer, amongst the book and scrolls. He might stay there forever, in fact. She wouldn't be surprised.

Lien closed her eyes and turned her face to the sky above, towards the sun. It was a long time until the sun set. And a long walk to civilization. That was for her, who knew how to get where she needed to be, even on foot. For the Avatar and his friends, it would be near impossible.

Gold eyes closed and she took a breath, long a slow. She shook out her arms, looked towards he Library mournfully, and started off into the sand, after the footprints of the four that had left her behind. She couldn't risk letting them die if the direction was different. Already she had made alterations. Not many but some.

That meant that the future was not inevitable, which was at once comforting and terrifying.

On one hand, she had a choice in her future. Destiny was a load of shit, the way she had always hoped it to be. Alternatively, that also meant that Aang was not guaranteed to beat the Fire Lord. Nothing was set in stone.

Lien cursed again, long and hard.

Her footprints were glass in the sand.

* * *

Keeping up with the Sailer would have been much harder if she wasn't happened upon by Sidari* and Ninsun* of the Lanzhou, who both owed her a debt years passed for Ninsun's water bound son. They allowed her to hitch a ride to the Green Place*, where most of her tribe was staying.

She came off of their Sailers to be greeted by her mother and Sha-Mo, but brushed passed them to the gaggle of teenagers behind. Shiran and Zara took one look at her face before bolting in the opposite direction. Temur, Ghashiun's best friend, and Ilida, Ghashiun's probable future wife, stayed behind.

They didn't stop her from clocking him in the face the second he turned around.

"Lien!" Shuya shouted, running after her furious daughter. The girl was rearing back to go for a second shot when Sha-Mo grabbed her arm and stopped her, forcing her fist to cease in the middle of the air. His grip on her elbow was strong, unshakeable.

The girl spun to level him with the darkest glower available to her, enough to send the leader of the Gansu back a step before he straightened up.

"What are you doing, Lien?" he demanded, lifting his chin to try and look bigger than her, unafraid of fire that rolled through her eyes.

She pointed to Ghashiun.

"He stole the Avatar's flying bison, and stranded me, Professor Zei, the Avatar and his friends, in the middle of the fucking desert, left us to die!" she snarled into the face of her leader, her uncle, Ghashiun's father.

Sha-Mo was a fair man. He had an even temperament and a clear head. He did not favor his son over anyone else, and had no illusions about the boy's habits in the art of theft. Most of those went unaddressed, none of them were entirely free of theft, but this was different. This put other people, more importantly other tribe members, in danger.

The older man stood straighter. His eyes narrowed onto his son, who was nursing a soon-to-be bruising cheek.

"Is this true, Ghashiun?" he demanded, voice hard.

His son bared his teeth at the man in an act of defiance and anger.

"It is not! She's lying," he declared boldly. Lien felt her temper rising. Her teeth grit together, her face flushed from a tan to a burn. She wouldn't have been surprised if smoke started rising from her ears then.

"Why would I lie?" she snarled, ready to pitch herself at her cousin again. She might have it Shuya hadn't slipped an arm around her daughters middle to keep her in place. Kyu, who had been watching from one of the structures of the oasis, scolded and stormed over.

Lien ignored her when she started pulling insistently on Shuya's clothes, whining pathetically for the woman to pick her up.

"Because- because you want to get me in trouble!" he stumbled over his words. A terrible liar for some so good at stealing.

"Yeah," she snapped, "I do. Because you could have killed me," she quarreled. Lien had no memory of ever being so angry. Even when she was young and easy to rile up.

"Lien," Sha-Mo's voice cut in, stopping her from continuing. She grit her teeth and leaned into her mother's side, trying to rein herself in. The leader turned his harsh eyes on the boy in front of them.

"Ghashiun, I've been patient. I've tried to give you space, and time to mourn for your mother-"

"Don't talk about her!" the boy demanded.

Sha-Mo ignored him. "This is the end of it. You put your cousin in danger. Nothing excuses that."

"She was talking about mom!"

"So she deserved to die?"

Sha-Mo was the only one Lien knew still alive that could begin to reign in his son. The boy's face twisted with betrayal and frustration. Lien pushed down the sliver of smugness with a small amount of guilt. She knew that bringing his mother up was a bad idea, but she had done it anyways. She had been fed up with his behavior and now look at where they were.

"We will discuss your punishment when we get back," Sha-Mo warned, his voice dropping low with the threat. He turned to Lien, who stood straighter when his eyes landed on her.

"Do you have any idea where they were going?" he asked. That was the sign. Shuya pushed Kyu towards her father, against the girl vicious objections. Three more of her tribesman moved to prepare the sailers.

Lien nodded.

* * *

 ***Special prize for the first person who recognizes both of these references.**


	8. Chapter 7: It Starts With Goodbye

**SNicole25: Nope!**

 **Not-Gonna-Update: You're partially right! The Green Place is actually in reference to the new Mad Max movie.**

 **Darth Nefurious: Eh, I don't know about that. I feel like anyone who has formal schooling would have heard about it, especially if they live in a city where architects are common.**

 **AJPJweallluvJJ: Cool!**

 **akegami hime chan: Kyu was meant to be extremely annoying, the epitome of a spoiled little brat. Oh gosh, poor Zuko is going to end up banging his head into a wall when these two meet.**

 **VelmaInkley: I'm really glad that you're enjoying it! It's so hard not reveal everything all at once and to actually pace myself. I'm really glad I've (Finally) finished her introduction and can now move on.**

 **LyricalJelly: Thank you so much!**

 **Guest from June 16th: I wish there were more! I knew I had to do my own when realized that they were virtually non existent.**

 **Guest from June 16th: I've finally updated!**

 **Saber007: exactly! And the names were the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Green Place was in Mad Max: Fury Road.**

* * *

When their sailers shot in on either side of the makeshift transport of the Avatar Lien barely waited long enough for them to slow decently before she had thrown herself onto the desert floor. She could see the Gaang struggling to get off of the magnetic rock without becoming buzzard wasp food.

Lien rolled into a stance that was most certainly not based from true Fire Bending. With her feet braced apart she threw her fist one way, then the other, sending lines of fire out 400 feet in either direction. She flipped her fists open so her palms were facing the sky before Lien pushed herself up, forcing her hands and the fire into the air until a wall of flames was erupting between the teenagers and their attackers.

The massive insect hybrids flew away as fast as they could, those that hadn't been burn to a crisp by her.

The young fire bender stood up, letting her arms drop to her side. Her head spun briefly from the sudden exertion and she swayed unsteadily for a moment before she managed to get her balance back. There were still stars in her vision when the Avatar and his friends stumbled into the sand, staring at her with wide eyes.

She didn't know why. Everyone else could do the same thing with earth.

Lien teetered forwards, toward the group, before a heavily bandaged hand steadied her shoulder. She straightened up and took a deep breath. Her vision returned.

"What are you doing here?" Katara asked, in the lead. Aang was flanking her, an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. Toph stood facing the wrong direction while Sokka had a hand on the hilt of his boomerang.

"I came after you," she explained. "With help."

Her gesture enclosed all of the tribesmen that Sha-Mo had allowed them to bring along. Four sailers, nine people.

"Sand benders are the reason we're stuck out here," Aang snapped, glaring darkly at them all. Lien could feel the unease that wrapped around her people just as surely as their coverings.

"Yes," she agreed easily.

"That is why we came here," Sha-Mo stepped up by her, and walked past. "I am Sha-Mo, leader of the Gansu. My niece told me of the tracheary one of my people brought upon you," he was picking his words carefully, like a diplomat, "We've come to get you out of the desert, and on your way to Ba Sing Se."

"Why should we believe you?" Aang demanded, taking a threatening step forwards. If he heard Katara's objections he gave no sign of it. Lien's mouth twitched into a scowl.

"Why else would we be out here?" Shuya reasoned, "You are the Avatar, and we would all like to see you end this war. Even if some of us are less… far thinking, than others."

Lien could see Sha-Mo frown ever so slightly at the jab taken towards his son.

"It is the way of our people, to offer hospitality to those wronged by our fellows," her uncle said firmly. That only counted if they could prove they had been gypped.

Aang's mouth opened again before Lien cut him off.

"Stop being an idiot!" All eyes shot to her. "Your Bison is gone, and for that I am sorry, but you need to get a grip, Avatar. It's not just your heart, or your life that you have to worry about. You're responsible for what happens to the rest of the world, and you give a damn about any of the people in it, your friends included, you'll grieve and move on. He's not dead, he was sold to merchants going to the same city you are."

Breath caught and grey eyes grew wide.

"Appa's going to Ba Sing Se?" Aang stepped closer to her. Lien bit back a sigh.

"We talked to the benders who caught him. They sold him to the Beetle Headed Merchants, who were planning on trading him there," she explained simply. Ghashiun had told them everything after he was found guilty of his theft. They would deal with him on their own terms. Outsiders had no place in their justice.

"He's probably there already. Now do you want a ride out of here or what?"

* * *

It was Katara that broached the quiet on the sailer, sometimes after dark. They were stopped in the desert, near one of their hidden oasis'. It was made up of two small pools they called Tui and La, after the moon and ocean. A smattering of green, hardy bruch grew up around it, along with a solid shelter filled with dried provisions and barrels of water. The space was managed by the Gansu, a young woman named Sitora.

"How did you make that wall out of fire?" she asked, looking towards Lien. There were papers spread out all around them, maps and charts mostly. Some bending scrolls as well. The teenagers had tucked themselves between the pontoons of her mother's craft when they stopped, and now Aang sat on one while Toph lay in a crook, the opposite of the one Lien rested in. Sokka and Katara were in the middle of the sand, looking over their findings.

Lien cocked her head.

"All I did was the same thing all of my people can do. I just used a different element," she shrugged. That pretty much summed up all she knew. She had no formal firebending training at all.

"You must be a pretty good firebender then, right?" Katara pressed.

Lien narrowed her eyes. "I guess so. Why?" She couldn't be about to say what Lien thought she was.

"Maybe you could teach Aang a thing or two."

She was.

"Nope," Lien shook her head. "I'm not much a teacher. And besides, my firebending is mostly improv, or something I picked up from scrolls at the Library. The Avatar needs someone who knows the real stuff."

"Yeah, but everyone who does wants to kill us."

Lien couldn't argue with that. She scratched her bared cheek, over a scar that crossed it from years past.

"If you attack on the Day of Black Sun, firebending will be useless anyways. Just beat the Fire Lord and then learn," she didn't think she should be teaching anybody, let along the Avatar. And besides that, that would mean leaving the desert, her tribe, her mother.

"I think you should do it."

Speak of the devil.

Lien tilted her head back to see Shuya leaning over the platform set between the pontoons, her eyes locked on her daughter. She looked beautiful still, but there were lines drawn around her eyes and mouth that didn't have anything to do with laughter. She was tired.

"What? Lien stared up at her mother, surprised. Shuya smiled down at the teenager.

"I'm serious, Lien. The Avatar needs and teacher and you can give him the basics, if nothing else. And besides that, it will give you a chance to see the world beyond our borders. You've never seen it but there's so much more out there. Oceans, forests, plains. Places with water and green as far as the eye can see," Shuya painted a lovely picture.

Lien frowned up at her. "But I belong here, with the Gansu, with you."

Shuya shook her head and waved her hand, summoning Lien up so they could speak with just a little bit of privacy. The girl obeyed, hopping to her mother's side and facing the desert instead of inside of the circle they'd made with sailers, creating a protective barrier from sand storms.

"You've always been a wanderer," Shuya said quietly. "When you were young you barely bothered playing with the others you were so obsessed with knowing where everything was, how everything worked."

Lien flushed in surprise. She hadn't been trying to impress anyone. She had been afraid of dying again, in sand this time. Shuya kept going.

"You've been disappearing on your own for years, and no one knows where you go. This is just the same, a chance for you to explore and learn what you can't in the dunes. And when you're finished, if you still want to return to our cloth, then you will return. And I will be waiting for you," Shuya wrapped an arm around the girls shoulder. Lien leaned into it, tears pricking her eyes where they had no place. Gansu didn't cry. It was a waste of precious water.

"I will always return," she said quietly, so soft she thought the howl of coyote badgers would drown it out.

Shuya squeezed her shoulder.

"I know you will."

* * *

That night Lien dreamed of flying with winged bunny rabbits.


	9. Chapter 8: Change

**Guest from Sep. 11th: Thank you! My chapter length really does vary, doesn't it?**

 **Faelight: Thank you very much!**

 **Guest from Sep. 12th: Is this soon enough?**

 **Guest from Sep. 12th: Yes! Finally, right? Lien is definitely one of my favorite characters to write, and I have a lot!**

 **Guest from Sep. 12th: Wow what happened on the 12th that brought these guest around?**

 **Chezleee: I hope that is still good!**

 **Guest from Sep. 16th: I do know there aren't many, it really sucks! The Clarity of Everything? I feel like I read that once and it just wasn't my cup of tea. Lucky Jade, by Toonwalla, I thought was really good though.**

* * *

Lien had a strange relationship with water. On one hand, she loved it in the sense that it was the key to survival and as a desert dweller she was naturally inclined to value it more than her own arm. On the other hand, she was a firebender _and_ a desert dweller and seeing too much of it at once, or trying to swim, left her with a sever case of fuck-this-where's-my-sand?.

So while Aang and Katara were busy splashing around in the water Lien was sitting a good distance away, legs crossed and eyes closed. She took several deep breaths, let the sun sink into her skin.

"Aren't you hot?"

Her peace was interrupted by an Air Nomads inquiry. Lien cracked a golden eye open to look at him. He was on the edge of the pond, his arms crossed over the rocks that surrounded it. Katara was behind him, also watching the firebender.

"I'm from the desert. If anything I'm cold," she said simply. Aang cocked his head.

"Are you meditating?" he inquired next, to which the girl had to shake her head after a minute. It wasn't that.

"I was relaxing, not really meditating just… feeling. Sandbenders got by by reading the changes in the earth and the air, learning to understand the shifting tides of the dunes, the flight of birds, and the way the wind blew. I can do that, and a little more," she pointed upward, "I feel from the sun and the atmosphere, the way the heat changed and bring in different weather."

"That, doesn't sound like earthbending," Toph said from she had set against a rock some ways away, an overhang keeping her in the shade. Lien would bet she'd made it herself.

"It's really not," Lien agreed, "Sandbending doesn't have a whole lot to do with traditional earthbending. You felt how loose and malleable everything was?" Toph muttered an, 'unfortunately' before Lien went on, "That means that the style my people use has to change too, to adapt. My mother says it's closer to water bending or airbending most times, and my firebending reflects that too. See, the desert is unforgiving. You can only be so stubborn before it gets you killed, and the Gansu are nothing if not survivors. We learn and adapt, and part of that means that we have to able to know when the weather is going to change."

"What weather?" Sokka grimaced, "We were there for like, a week, and we only saw one cloud!"

"Then you're pretty damn lucky," Lien snipped tersley. When his head snapped around and his mouth opened she spoke before he could keep going. "If you had seen a desert storm, you would be dead, glacier boy."

"What do you mean?" Katara waded closer, frowning, "Water was exactly what we needed. If it rained we would have gotten some."

"Storms in the desert aren't always those that involve water. Just as often there's a sandstorm, which can lasts for months at a time. Those have been known to blind a person, rip a sailer apart and ruin water supplies. That's not even counting the lightning that comes with them. It can bury the unprepared, and drown someone in sand," she said grimly, "On the rare occasions we get actual rain, it can be even worse.

"Sand doesn't soak up water well. So if there's more than, say, an inch and a half that falls lake beds with fill up and overflow, flash floods are almost certain. I've seen walls of water that are over 30 feet high." She watched with some satisfaction the widening of their eyes. "So you see why we need to be prepared."

"If its that bad, why do you live there?" Sokka looked truly bewildered.

Lien cocked her head. "Technically, you're from a desert too. Yours it just made out of ice and snow. You have your own hardships, blizzards and storms and stuff like that, right?" she waited for them to know, "Would you ever leave the poles because of that?"

"Of course not! That's our home!" Sokka leapt to the defense of his native land. Lien smiled just a little and he faltered. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"So, what's the weather going to be like today?" Aang asked, quickly breaking the awkward silence that fell over the quartet.

Lien blinked at him a couple of time. "Um, I'm not really a fortune teller. And it's not like, a whole day thing. It's what's happening now. And right now it's sunny, but there are clouds on the other side of the cliff," she pointed. "This rock stays still, so it doesn't really matter about that."

Three people lifted their head to look up, and sure enough a few puffy clouds drifted across the edge of the cliff that rose above them, one that came equipped with a nice water fall.

"From your silence, I'm going to guess that she's right," Toph assumed, wandering over by Sokka. Lien didn't know why he was so close to the water when he had maps older than his grandmother with him. She didn't like it though.

Still, they had a pair of water benders with them, so it probably wouldn't hurt anything. If it did, she would light his ass on fire faster than he could say-

"What's burning?" Toph asked suddenly, and Lien looked down to see her hand had heated enough to light a small patch of grass on fire.

"Huh," she said offhandedly. With a wave she had sucked the heat away and put the flame out. "Usually when that happens there's a glass handprint. No sand here…"

"So what you just, burn things on accident?" Sokka practically shouted.

Lien shrugged and leaned back. "Not really. It's not fire, its heat. That grass just happened to be dry enough to catch on fire. I'm used to things that just turn into glass. I'll adjust."

"Fire is dangerous," Aang said it so quietly Lien almost missed it. That was right, his first time firebending he'd gotten arrogant and burned Katara, hadn't he? That was before Toph, and before the North Pole. Huh. She really was coming in pretty later in the story.

Lien sat up once more, and slumped forwards. "C'mere," she instructed, and pulled out a piece of parchment and some charcoal sticks from her bag.

Aang came over, as well as the two Water Tribe kids and Toph.

"I've spent a lot of time in a spirit library, and a lot of time thinking about my bending and what it might mean," she said slowly, "I wasn't raised to fear it. Sandbenders don't have time for prejudices. We're too busy trying to live. That would mean giving up potentially valuable asset, like my bending. That gave me a lot of freedom to think. I didn't have any Fire Nation propaganda pushing me to think I was hot stuff," Pun intended, "Or a bunch of Earth Nation Loyalists breathing down my neck for a heritage that I have no say in. And I've come to a few conclusion."

She drew a symbol for all four nations on one piece of paper, her mind going back to years past. To a cartoon boy, still learning, still growing, and a wise old man who told him about the world.

"Traditionally, Air is the element of Freedom," she said carefully, "The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly desires and concerns, and found peace, right?" She waited for Aang to nod. Earth is the element of Substance. It's people are stubborn and enduring, self reliant and strong. Water is supposed to be the element of Change, and the people of the Water Tribes are adapting, and have a deep rooted sense of love for their community… someone correct me if I'm wrong?"

No one did. She went on.

"Supposedly, Fire is the element of Power, and its people have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want, as you all well know."

"You say 'supposedly'," Katara observed, "does that mean you think differently?"

Lien nodded. "Yes. I do." Perhaps she had listened to too many Greek Myths in her past life. Perhaps she had been a part of them in a life before that. Who knew?

"From what I can tell, this is close but, well." Where did she start? "It seems to me that Air is definitely free and peaceful, and Earth I think is pretty spot on too. I mean, I grew up with earthbenders and I know how stubborn and enduring they can be, but they're more flexible than people give them credit for. Like the earth can change from boulders to sand, so too can the benders of it."

"Now, Water, I think, is what should be Power." To that, she received very confused looks. "Think about it," she went on, "Water is what carved the face of mountains, it's what ground stones into sand. You can stop a wildfire, but unless you're a waterbender there's nothing you can do about a flood. The ocean never stops or gives up. You just can't stop water," she went on, and very slowly Katara nodded.

"What about Fire?" Sokka asked suspiciously.

Lien pursed her lips. "For me, _Fire_ is the element of Change," she cupped her hands and a small flame erupted in between them. "It's constantly in motion its boundless energy and brilliance burns across the world without pause or regret," Sokka snorted. Lien ignored him, "Nonetheless, fire is more than mindless destruction-"

"Tell that to the Fire Nation," Sokka dismissed, and Lien resisted the urge to slap him.

Instead, she just kept talking. "Fire gives warmth to those in the cold, and light to those in the dark. It changes colorless sand into vibrant glass. Fire is _hope_ and _love_. Haven't you ever felt the _warm_ fuzzy feelings for someone? Even when it does cause harm, from its ashes and disaster comes about new life that had previously been choked. Where a tree burns down a wild flower takes root. Fire is the origin of all knowledge and all life, a gift from Prometheus out of love and charity, it is the ultimate protector. It gave rise to humans and the world that we know now-"

"Who the heck is 'Prometheus'?" Toph stopped her long winded rant and Lien came back to herself. Oh. Whoops, too much.

Lien scratched her cheek.

"In some legends, he was one of the primordial beings that crafted humanity. While Zeus, who was their king, was content to leave human kind out in the dark and cold, ignorant and frigid, Prometheus looked upon us with compassion. He stole fire from the sun itself and gave it us so that we might shed light and warmth on ourselves and learn about the world," she explained, "For his crimes he was chained to a stone, and now a vulture eats his liver out everyday," she added, as an afterthought, "Sometimes he's depicted as the father of all dragons," which was a bold faced lie.

"Huh," Toph said after a second, before she got tired of the philosophy talk and wandered away.

The rest looked, less convinced.

"Fire killed our mother," Katara said without warning.

Lien looked straight at her. "People burn. People drown. People suffocate. They get crushed by rocks. Legends even say the first murder weapon was a rock," Thank you Cain and Abel, "My father was killed by a spirit, from what I've heard. That doesn't mean that everyone associated with those elements, or the element itself is always associated with these incidents. It wasn't Fire that killed your mom. It was a human."

Awkward silence descended upon them.

Lien stood up. Brushed some grass off of her pants.

"Tell me when we're leaving." She walked away, taking a shaky breath. That was a little too intense for her. She didn't like it at all.

The sand dweller made her way through the bushes, stunned by the sheer amount of foliage that surrounded her. It was inordinate for her. Even before she was a child of the desert she was a girl born to glass and iron, stone. The closest thing she had ever seen to this massive forest was Central Park.

Lien ended up scrambling up a tree, hauling herself up into the the branches. She was so far out of her element, away from anyone and everyone she had ever known and surrounded by people who, however they hid it sometimes, were suspicious of her. She could see the contingencies welling up inside Sokka's eyes whenever she started the campfire. The girl drew her legs towards her, balancing carefully, and closed her eyes to the feelings. It hurt. More than she thought anything could. More than burning herself or getting slapped with a face full of sand, more than being bit by an Armadillo Wolf.

She missed Shuya.

Lien wanted her mother.

* * *

"I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the Fire Nation," Katara commended when they emerged from the tunnel, courtesy of a pair of earthbenders in uniform. The entrance to Full Moon Bay was crowded with people in green and beige. Even Lien had finally given up some of her tradition clothes. Instead of a multitude of tan clothes wrapped around her body she now sported a long tunic the color of dust, under which she had long sleeves and pants of a dark green that tucked into her usual wrappings around her hands and feet. The only difference there was the layers was fewer, and didn't bulk her hands like boxing gloves anymore. And, of course, the addition of thin green flats. A thick sash of the same color stretched from just under her hip bones to just under her chest.

Her bag she kept tied tight and against her back.

It was such a change from her usually tattered clothes. She felt like she was putting on airs, but Ying had insisted she take the clothes that were too small for her pregnants self.

'They're just old things,' she had insisted, 'I only have them for sentimental reasons. Come on, they'll look good on you!'

So she had accepted the change from her sand encrusted clothes and now fit in, if only a little bit more. Ying hadn't been wrong either. The contrast did look good on her, all things considered. Lien had yet to grow into the fine boned beauty of Shuya, nor did she have the commanding presence of her apparent father. She wasn't plain, by any means, or ugly. She was just on the awkward crust of attractive.

Not that it was easy to tell up until that point. Most of her life she had spent covering every inch of skin that was possible.

"We're all looking for a better life," Ying's husband said quietly, appearing behind the two girls. " _Safe_ , behind the walls of Ba Sing Se."

Lien let out a breath. If only they knew the truth of the matter.

Gold eyes soaked in the world around her, looking, perhaps, for a red scar and an old man. She doubted she would see them, but still she looked. Zuko and Iroh were important, so very important, and even if she couldn't talk to them directly it would be nice to know that they were there.

At last she concluded that there was nothing there for her to look at, and wandered over to the line. While the Gaang talked behind her, making plans, Lien watched with great amusement as the poor Cabbage Man lost his vegetables. Again.

"Next!" The old woman shouted, and Lien walked up before the others to give up her passport. Earth Nation born and raised, there was no reason for her not to have one. She didn't travel outside of the desert much, but that didn't mean she didn't get one when she was younger. Lien wondered if perhaps her mother had known that she would leave one day, and had prepared accordingly.

She was given a stamped ticket and walked away, checking her belongings while the rest of the group tried to get their own. They were lucky that Toph's family was inexplicably wealthy.

They were almost to the boat and Lien had to wonder if perhaps something had changed. If there were no thieves in that den, and they would simply take the ferry all the way across rather than brave the Serpent's Pass.

Then, the scream shot through the air.


	10. Chapter 9: Serpent's Pass

**Reviews! Which I like a lot! I love hearing from you guys, it really inspires me to write.**

 **goddragonking: Thank you very much! This chapter might actually be the longest I've written for this story.**

 **reula: You might be a little disappointed by the end of this cliff ^^'**

* * *

Lien walked over where the sounds had originated from, in front of the rest of the Gaang, to watch two young women duke it out over a boy. A boy. Who wasn't even that cute, and just sat back and smiled at the duo. A closer look and Lien was able to figure that they were probably sisters.

She wasn't surprised by this. There was a general air of tension around the entrance to the bay. Refugees were there with their few, meagre belongings, accompanied by feet sore from travel and high tempers left over from all of the mishaps that accompanied it. It was really only a matter of time before sparks caught fire and exploded into fights.

It didn't help that the boy was making idle commentary as the girls tried to rip each others hair out.

"Should we do something?" Aang asked from behind her. Lien shrugged, watching the taller girl clock the smaller one in the face.

"They have security here, and if they don't duke it out here, then where?" she reasoned.

"Fighting is never the answer," Aang objected, at the same time Toph sidled over to a shady man in patched clothes to place a bet on the 'the one with the limp'. Lien let his words roll off of her shoulders while she went to place a bet of her own. It was easy for him to say that. He had been raised by peaceful people in a mountain top, away from hardship and struggle. For her, and probably Sokka and Katara too, to a lesser extent, every day was a fight.

A fight against the world to keep your place in it. A fight against instincts and temperaments and other people. A fight for this second life she had been given.

In some ways, she envied him. In others, she was blessed not to be him. Sheltered or not, Aang was still the last of his people. The only Air Nomad left in the world.

Probably.

Lien had always had suspicions, always had questions and thoughts, that perhaps that wasn't entirely true. Pacifistic or not, Air Nomads could fucking fly. Why wouldn't at least some of them escape? Why wouldn't at least a handful run? Hide? Keep their culture alive while avoiding total annihilation at the hands of the Fire Nation?

Their destruction was outlandish, and Lien couldn't comprehend why anyone would stay still to be slaughtered.*

There was only one more minute before a pair of girls in tan appeared and caught both of the combatants by their arms, twisting their limbs so they were forced to lower themselves to their knees. Curses were still spit between the two, and nasty words passed through the gathered crowd. Money exchanged hands and Lien smiled sweetly at the poor saps forced to hand it over to her. Once she had the coins she strung them up on a thin metal cord that she tied onto a strap on the inside of her bag. It would be a hell of a lot harder to steal then.

It was only then that Lien realized that, in the middle of the chaos, Sokka had disappeared.

Which was just lovely.

"Hey, Katara," she spoke up, drawing the darker girls attention to her. "Where'd your brother run off to?"

Katara paused, and looked around before she started to frown. "I don't- Oh!" her eyes lit up. "He's over there! And look who's with him!"

Lien followed her pointing finger and cocked her head. She recognized the girl with him, in the same way that she might recognized John Astin or Adam West.

"Suki!" Aang cheered before sprinting towards the girl.

Lien leaned over to Toph. "You know here?" she asked amiably.

The girl snorted. "Never seen her before."

Lien nodded, then paused, looked down at Toph. There was no way that was a pun. That was just, just perfect.

"I think I love you," she said, making the smaller girl jerk in surprise. Before she could respond the firebender went to introduce herself to the Kyoshi warrior, who had always been someone that the girl admired. Suki, Asami and Korra were her favorites. They meant a lot for her to see growing up.

She wondered idly how easily Suki could kick her ass.

* * *

"You know I once knew a teacher who put a sign above his classroom that said that," Lien commented, staring at the writing on the wood. "Abandon Hope," she recited. Her eyes grew far off and she tilted her head, seeing printed paper in a language lost to this world, seeing a sea of people whose attention on their phones gave courage to the little glass maker standing at the front of the room. '

""Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric moved:

To rear me was the task of Power divine,

Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.

Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal, and eternal I endure.

All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

"How horrible," Ying cried.

Lien cocked her head. "There are some of the desert, the mad and lost, who would disagree," she said slowly, "hope, for the Jiuquan, is fragile and delicate. As far as they're concerned hope bring only pain and disappointment, and a profound understanding of loss. As far as they are concerned," she repeated herself, "those who abandon hope are those who survive most easily."

"Of course," she added, "Of course, surviving and living are two different things." She would know.

"I'd like to do both, so let's get a move on," Sokka spoke too loudly and when she looked at him Lien noted a dullness in his normally bright eyes. How odd.

Aang wasn't looking much better. Losing Appa really took its toll on him.

Lien sighed softly and trailed after the group. Even after travelling with them she still felt like something of an outsider, for one reason or another. They were nice, of course, but she didn't feel like she belonged with them. She missed her desert and her library. She missed the sand in her skin and wind and the air. She missed the dry heat and the endless waves of dust that stirred like smoke in the wind, covering all that was. She missed her tribe and family.

Well, Shuya and her husband. Her sister she could do without.

The trail to the Serpent's Pass was thin and crumbling. They had to go one at a time and Lien was trusting Toph and Aang not to let them all fall to their deaths in the water far below. She couldn't swim well.

The Fire Nation ship didn't help anything, but Aang handled with the ease of long months of practice. Lien didn't envy the necessity of it. Of course, she would have to learn to get used to it herself, until Zuko finally joined up. After all, she was the most unorthodox firebender the world had ever seen, and the Avatar needed a master.

Unless he wanted to start _glassbending_ , she could only help so much. Probably more than Jeong Jeon had. Fearing one's powers was the key to a life of misery and terror. Lien had never had the patience for it.

"You don't talk very much, do you?" Suki asked her when they found a spot to camp. The sun was setting, the night was rising. Lien was still getting used to the temperature not dropping straight below zero when the light disappeared.

"I speak when there's something to say," she said diplomatically. Then smiled. "I'm used to having a cloth over my mouth all the time. My people are quiet out of necessity."

"I've never been to the desert," Suki laid her sleeping matt down next to Lien's, only for Sokka to snatch it up before she could sit down.

"Suki! You shouldn't sleep there, there's no telling how stable that ledge is," he dragged her matt closer to the fire and Lien arched a brow high. Her sleeping bag was on the same ledge as Suki's.

"I'm feeling the love over here," she drawled sarcastically, twirling her finger in the air. Sokka didn't notice, he was too busy fussing over Suki to bother.

Toph slapped the earth, startling Lien.

"That ledge isn't giving out tonight," she declared. Lien smiled at her.

"Thanks," she said sincerely. At least someone was looking out for her. The smile fell when she looked out over the vast span of water. Tomorrow she would be under it in a horrible, makeshift submarine.

She would rather try to fly, if she was being honest.

The desert girl lay back on the hard ground, missing sorely the soft dunes and the familiar scent of her home. The sound of waves slapping cliffs, the smell of dense, wet rock was so foreign from what she knew and loved. The scent of dust and them sound of dunes rolling and changing shape were beautiful. She longed for it.

* * *

"Something is rotten in the state of denmark.**" The ruff around Shin Yun's neck nearly curved up to his lips. Lien turned from him, her sword clicking at her belt. The bricks lead her away, towards the phantom of her father.

Adam Baressi walked along to the edge of the cliff, through the entry hall of Wayne manor until they were standing on top of the tower of terror. Water World stretched out around them. The sand shark breached the clouds and arched across their heads.

Lien lifted her voice.

"Where wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go no further!"

Adam looked back at her. He was as she remembered, sun kissed, shaves bald on chin and head, with laugh lines crinkling his eyes. His favorite blue checkered shirt was buttoned halfway up.

"Mark me." It was no order but an advisement. His daughter nodded. His daughter that was not his daughter but more his daughter than not.

"I shall."

He tugged his mutton chops that were not his. "My hour is almost come. When I to sulfurous and tormenting flames, must render up myself."

She gasped in horror. "Alas, poor ghost!"

"Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing, to what I shall unfold," he shook his head. Lien stepped closer, across the pile of fish bones.

"Speak," she begged, "I am bound to hear."

"So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear.

"You must be ready for revenge, too, when you hear me out," he warned.

"What?" she was the dead one, why would she avenge him? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Adam cleared his throat and blinked gold eyes at his not-daughter-that-was-a-daughter. "I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires. Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid to tell the secrets of my prison house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood!"

He sucked a dragon's breath.

"Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and combinèd locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end, like quills upon the fearful porpentine!" he breathed fire from his scally mouth. The sunset burned pink, purple, and blue. "But this eternal blazon must not be, to ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love—"

"O' God!" she wailed. She loved her father, truly, but the dragon wished her vengeance and she would not dally on quests of blood letting anger.

"-Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder," he shot her a dirty look for her interruption. "Take revenge for his horrible murder, that crime against nature."

"Murder!" Lien cried.

He nodded gravely, his top knot bobbing, "Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange and unnatural."

"Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift, as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my-" Revenge? No revenge. No need for it. "Reverence."

He narrowed his eyes at her and crossed his arms over his red armor. "I find thee apt, and duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed that roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Harmony, hear."

She stood straighter.

"'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark is by a forgèd process of my death rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown!" he pointed, and Lien followed it to find Peter standing on his hind legs, with a circlet wrapped over his fluffy ears.

"My uncle?" Lien stared at the Knowledge Seeker, who tilted his head and wagged his tail. He dropped to his forepaws and trotted closer to her, pushing his head underneath her hand.

"Who's uncle?" Adam asked, stepping towards her. He gripped her shoulders tight, too tight. "Iroh uncle, that uncle?" His hair fell out in wild wisps and her father spun around, "What does he matter now? That failure! Not like me, no. I am Zhao the Conqueror! I am the Moon Slayer!"

He wandered into the fog, out of sight. Lien looked down at Peter, who licked her fingers and tilted his head to the crown fell around her wrist in a silver bracelet. Upon closer inspection she found that it pointed up in one place and arched down right below it, to a smaller state. Etched upon it were delicate designs. She couldn't read it, but she knew what it said.

 _Illumination._

He gripped her hand delicately in his sharp teeth and Lien trailed after the creature, out of the fog. Into the light. A bunny with wings fluttered into her vision and she reeled back, so surprised she fell on her butt.

Her eyes opened to the rising sun and sharp ridges of the Serpent's Pass. ***

* * *

Lien squinted at the vast expanse of water that stretched between her and the other side. The gap that left them stranded, cut off from Ba Sing Se. Then she looked at Katara, who was inspecting the water.

"You know what," she said tersely, "I think I'll stay here. Catch some rays. Not drown."

"Don't be silly," Katara scolded, "No one's going to drown."

Lien gave her humorless look. "Easy for the _waterbender_ to say."

"I feel you," Toph muttered. Lien squeezed her shoulder and the group gathered together, congregating into a line that lead into a irritating bubble of water. Lien took a deep breath to try and calm herself. She liked neither enclosed spaces not this much water. This was, perhaps, the worst possible place in the world for her.

The fish were pretty enough, and Momo seemed to like them quite a bit. Lien smiled, ever so slightly.

"I didn't know Lemur's were such good swimmers," she said idly. Something else caught her eyes. "Huh. I didn't know snakes got that big."

Lien froze. Ying bumped into her back. The girl was halfway through a curse when she cut it off by sucking in a deep breath. She snapped her goggled over her eyes just in time to be smashed aside by the tidal force of the great sea serpent.

Toph thought quicker than any of them and forced the earth up, up, up through the water until they breached the surface of the straight. Lien was kneeling with it, gripping the dirt as best she could. She was chanting under her breath in a language half forgotten, probably looking mad with fright.

When the Serpent resurfaced she hissed and stood up. The girl balanced on the balls of her feet, her eyes narrowed up at it. The snake opened its mouth and roared.

"Oh great and powerful Sea Serpent, Please accept this humble and tasty offering," Sokka begged, bowing down and holding Momo above his head. Lien placed her hand out on his arm, her gold eyes locked on the creature that lifted itself up above them, showing off its slithering tongue.

"Put the Lemur down," she said slowly. Sokka obeyed, his eyes on her. She had never used fire around this much water, but giant monsters she had some experience with. The Sand Shark was a royal pain in her behind most days. She felt little guilt throwing fire down its throat. And now, she felt no smashing it into the mouth of the snake.

Until Ying gasped her horror.

While the snake writhed and tried to shake its new burns off Katara ran onto the water, throwing frost in front of with ease that Lien envied. It the grace of someone taught by a master possessed. She might never know what that was like. The girl shook it off and, remembering long ago tales, grabbed Toph's hand in hers.

"Come on," she encouraged. "I won't let you fall."

Toph gripped her hand and they ventured onto the ice. The younger girl hesitated on the frosted surface, her pale eyes wide and her breath sharp. Lien squeezed her hand.

"Trust me," she encouraged. Then started humming while she pulled the girl along. "Trust me, trusting me, darling dear, I'm so sincere, there's no need to fear."

"Are you singing," Toph asked, incredulously.

"Just walk," Lien ordered. The monster reared around, away from Katara's ice and Aang's glider irritation. Lien hoped that some of the fire had spread to blind the damnable beast. "I hate water," she grumbled, and took Toph as a dead run the last hundred feet. The monster fell through the ice, shattering it and sending the girls sweeping into the dirt below.

Lien hit it with cry as her shoulder twisted painfully.

"We should run!" Sokka declared, looking at his sister. He was already moving. The fool.

"Sokka," Lien called, drawing him to a stop. "Pregnant women can't run!"

Ying cried out and Lien had to amend her statement.

"Women in labor can't run either!"

 ***I'm considering starting a story about this, too.**

 ****Without a google search, guess where this is from.**

 *****I don't like reading a ton of Italics, so I put that (majorly confusing) dream in regular format.**


	11. Chapter 10: The Drill

**So. We're going to see some things in this upcoming chapter that were inspired by the old shaman we saw in LoK, when Korra lost her memories in** _ **Beginnings**_ **, and also my own thoughts and suppositions of how things might work if everyone were less combat oriented. So. Yeah.**

 **Reviews!**

 **SNicole25: What a fool!**

 **Goddragonking: Thank you so much! I hope this is up to standards!**

 **Devi-Angel17: Hamlet is correct! Five points to Ravenclaw!**

 **curlystruggle: Doubly lucky, here's more!**

 **OddShadow: And points for Hufflepuff too! Suki showed up after they got their tickets, and gave Sokka a hard time.**

 **JamieTheMonster: What an ominous name. I love Hamlet, after MacBeth it's my favorite Shakespeare play ^^**

 **Guest from Sep. 27th: Shits getting real!**

 **DearChibico: And now yet more points awarded!**

* * *

The walls of Ba Sing Se were a sight to beheld. They towered above the earth and cast massive shadows that stretched on. Thicker than a mountain, there was nothing that should have been able to penetrate them, no force on earth. Not even a bender of it.

Yet, the Fire Nation had returned to throw themselves at it again.

For _some_ reason, Lien was not surprised.

The girl leaned over the wall, her eyes narrowed at the great drill that threatened the city. Inside of that was Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai. All of which she was relatively certain could kick her ass six ways to sunday. She had no desire to face them.

Yet, if she was going to stay with Aang, she was going to have to.

"How are we gonna stop it?" Aang asked, and everyone else looked towards Sokka, Lien included. The boy bristled.

"Why are you all looking at me?!" he demanded, crossing his arms in a huff. Ying and her family had left, taken into the city by some of the guards. None of them would look at Lien on their way out. They did not bid her farewell even when she wished them well.

The girl pushed back the sick feeling of betrayal to look downwards again.

"You're the idea guy," Aang explained, as though it were obvious.

"So what, no one else can ever come up with anything?"

Lien smiled when his voice broke.

"I could try to melt it," the firebender offered half heartedly. It wouldn't work, but it might look cool. She could draw designs across the metal in molten red…

"Oh look," she pointed to the ground, "They lost."

Ty Lee and Mai were kind enough to let them take the injured earthbenders back, dragging them up the wall to safety. When Katara ran over to help, Lien wandered after her to watch. She had always wanted to see a waterbender healing.

Unfortunately, she couldn't do much for the men lying prone in their beds.

Or, she didn't think she could…

"Hey, let me try that," she stepped up to the girls side, and Katara gave her a wide eyed look.

"You're not a waterbender," she objected. Which was true. She was about as far from that as it was possible to get and still be a bender at all. The others were also looking at her, like she'd totally lost her mind.

"Well, no," she agreed, then reached into her bag and pulled out a scroll. "But I found this in the Library years ago. I've never used it on a human before though."

The man in the bed paled. "What do you mean? What is that?"

"Oh hush," she scolded. "I practiced on magic foxes. How different can it be?"

"What is 'it'?" Aang asked, slipping up to look over her shoulder. The scroll lay in front of them, depicting old forms and diagrams.

"It's something not practiced much these days. My father's people are all far too busy with physical matters and furthering their own agenda," Lien explained. Then, she raised her voice to say, "Aang!"

The young airbender jumped in surprise, and the man on the bed was really starting to look scared. Lien tried not to laugh at the look on his face.

"I'm right here, what?" Aang asked, frowning up at her. She was a full head taller than him.

Lien tucked a long, waving strand of black hair behind her ear.

"Tell, what is fire?" she asked instead of answering him. Now everyone looked confused.

"Fire?" he repeated, and the girl nodded. "I don't know. Fire is, fire. You said that it was light and all that, but it burns stuff and-"

"And, that's not what I was hoping you were going to say," she cut in. Lien looked back down at the poor sap before her.

"Fire is, in essence, energy. It's made up of three parts. Heat, fuel, and air-"

"Air?" Aang looked stunned.

"Air," she confirmed. "Normally, fire is burning on a log or a lamp or something. In that case, the fuel is wood, or oil. The air comes from around it, and the heat is self sustaining," Lien was actually pretty sure that he could stop fire period if he practiced it a little. "In bending, those two things are still mostly true. The biggest difference, is that instead of wood it feeds off of the chi of the fire bender. Cut of the chi and the fire goes out, unless it's caught onto something else. Now, when you firebend, it's still pretty similar to regular bending, in that you can use pre established flames for it. Similarly, it's possible to take pre-established energy, and manipulate that," she said carefully.

"So you're what, energybending," Sokka mocked, waving his hands like they were casting spells and flying on brooms.

Lien snorted. "Ah, no. Energybending is totally different. This is just a subsidiary effect of firebending based on the inner workings of the human body. Similarly, if one was good enough at lightning bending, they could completely destroy the nervous system, or even take over the actions of one's body," she listed.

Sokka went so pale he almost looked caucasian.

"Not that anyone ever has," she quickly amended, "This is pure speculation."

"Speculation over firebending, that you want to do on me?" the poor mans voice broke.

Lien patted his shoulder. "You'll be fine, just hold still," she chided. Then she held her hand above his, and heat shimmered between the both of them before it sparked into a small flame. The man beneath her sucked in a sharp breath, which she ignored.

Instead, she turned her attention to the feeling of the energy in his body. She let the quick sparks of nerves run past, and focused on the slower crawl of chi. Or, it should have been a crawl. Rather than that it was still, bits of it trying to escape the new prison. Like a dam, or in the case of firebending, a fire break.

Lien let her own power sink in, letting the fire grow up towards her fingers. She caught onto the block, and with a wave of her hand she pulled it free, sending the Chi rushing to the other one, which she freed as well, all the way down to his finger tips. What she left behind was red, heated skin, and a distinct lack of arm hair.

"You burned me!" The man accused.

Lien rolled her eyes. "If you were burned you would be crying, you big wuss," she snipped. It was a burn, really. First degree, totally harmless. It would be gone in a few hours. "Now earthbend something."

Looking none too happy with her he still threw his arm out, and sure enough the bricks swelled and split to allow a column to rise from between them.

He stared at it, stunned. "I can bend again!"

Lien tilted her head back towards the sky. Was it too late for her to go home yet?

* * *

"Once I whip up some cover you won't be able to see, so stick close to me."

Lien was barely paying attention to her. Her eyes were locked on the drill in front of them, a massive, looming shadow of destruction that she could not hate more if she tried. Her heart was in her throat when they sprinted into a massive cloud of dust that Toph managed to draw off of the ground.

As the dirt settled down down on the ground Toph worked a hole into the earth and the five of them leapt in. Lien closed her eyes, trying not to see the dark, trying not to feel the earth pressed against her shoulder. She stepped closer to Sokka, her breath growing harder. Her stomach hurt, her heart raced.

From far off memories she heard metal crunching. From above she heard it groaning.

She started shaking.

When the light poured in and released them Lien was the first one to launch herself out of the hole after Toph.

"What's wrong with you?" Sokka asked, looking at her in bewilderment.

Lien swallowed thickly. "I don't like small spaces," she said simply. When she had been in that bubble years ago she had been too busy to be afraid. She had been more worried about ways to get out, and oxygen deprivation did wonders to keep someone calm.

Aang flew up to hang upside down and give the rest of them a boost, minus Toph. Lien walked away from the hassle of trying to convince the blind earthbender to join them. It was hot in there, a wet heat that came from steam engines. It was so unlike the dryness of her home. This was damp and oppressive.

Huh. Turns out she could hate it more.

"You know, maybe I'll just go back down with Toph," she suggested, looking up at the hard, unending metal hallways.

"Don't be silly. We need you here," Aang dismissed, tugging her away her staring blankly at a gage.

Sokka took the lead, taking them through the dark, red tinted hallways. It reminded her of old memories she had of the inside of submarine's, or the pictures she had seen when she was someone else. When she was not a lotus but something else. When she was-

"I need plans for this machine," Sokka cut in. "Schematics of what it looks like on the inside."

If the hole had been bad, this was worse. It wasn't as tight but it was long and metal and there were pipes hanging down. Pipes, pipes that might fall, might move in, might skewer-

"Lien!" Sokka grabbed her arm and pulled her back into a nook in the metal. She sucked in a sharp breath filled with hot steam. "What's wrong with you?" he hissed in her ear. The firebender tried to burn him by accident.

"I told you. I don't like small spaces," She let out a breath that flickered with sparks and Sokka jerked back, letting go. Part of her wished that he hadn't. She could have used some kind of contact right about then. "They remind me of death."

"I- look, we don't have time for this. We have to take this thing down!" he gestured through the mist. Footsteps echoed and they shut up, watching Katara take down the engineer with only a single push of ice. Lien tried to focus, but it was hard. This was so like her death.

She really should have stayed with Toph.

While they looked over the map of the machine Lien worked to bring her breathing in. To focus. This was not a subway, this was not underground. She was safe from falling poles and collapsing trains.

She let out a breath. Then in again. This was fine. This wasn't a subway, it wasn't underground.

It wasn't a subway it wasn't underground.

She repeated the mantra all the way into the wide open spaces of the outer shell of the drill. As soon as they were there she found she could breath easier.

"Wow," she said dryly, approaching one of the massive beams. "This is gonna take a while."

"We're going to have to work hard for this," Sokka agreed, and his sister scoffed.

"What's this 'we'? Aang, Lien and I are doing all the work," Katara scolded, crossing her arms at him. Lien smiled at them and wondered what it was like to have siblings like that. The closest thing she had to that was Ghashiun, and they were hardly on friendly terms. They never had been, and her actual sister…

Lien shook off her thoughts and went to a bar separate from Aang and Katara's. She lowered herself into a stance reminiscent of what a real firebender might use and threw a punch. Fire streamed from her fist, onto the metal. How hot did it have to be to melt, she wondered.

Half an hour found her sitting on the ground, sweating through her gifted clothes and glaring harshly at the pole. It had warped slightly, but it wasn't melting.

"Do you have any poems for this?" Katara asked from her pole. She was glaring at it like it was personally offending her. Which is might as well have. Lien was insulted for sure.

Dryly, the firebender said, "Lost time is never found again."

"Come on team, don't quite now!" Sokka cried, "We-" a glare from Katara had him backtracking. "I mean, _you guy_ s are almost there!"

Lien crossed her arms and watched them go through the last few inches. She knew what would happen, and sure enough the structure groaned and the support slid, hers even compacted further, but it didn't come apart and nothing stopped working.

"At this rate, we won't be able to do enough damage to stop the drill before it hits the wall," Aang mourned.

"I don't know how much more of those I have in me," Katara confessed.

Lien waited for Sokka's next grand plan, and it appeared right on schedule, after a few seconds of him touching his chin and looking around at their surroundings. The eiry red glow freaked her out to no end. It was like some kind of weird metaphor for hell, and her earlier Dante quotation came back to her.

All of a sudden the drill started shaking and his face lit up.

"Do you hear that? We did it! We took it down!" he cheered. "We better get out of here, before-"

"Before nothing," Lien interrupted. "That's not the drill falling apart, that's not metal caving in on itself," she knew that sound all too well, "It's-

"Congratulations crew," boomed the overhead loudspeaker, "The drill had made contact with the outerwall of Ba Sing Se."

"Yeah, that," Lien pointed up at the tube that produced the noise.

Sokka started panicking about then. They all did. The only nonbender among them threw himself against the metal, begging the brace to budge while he shoved with all his might. Lien sighed softly.

"This is ridiculous," she declared, "We're putting everything to getting these things cut down and its not working. We'll never get all the way through all of them." she waited, prepared to 'have' an epiphany of her own if it was needed.

It wasn't.

"That's it!" Aang leapt up. "Maybe we don't need to cut all the way through them Toph has been teaching me that you shouldn't give 100 percent of your energy to any one strike." Lien laughed when the airbender used Sokka as a demonstration mechanism for his plan, beating up the poor boy. He always got the short end of the stick.

Even when they were attacked, it was him that almost had his hair burnt off by blue fire. Blue fire.

Lien cursed softly on the sands and seas.

"You were right Azula," Ty Lee smiled brightly. "It is the Avatar. And, _friends_ ," her smile changed when it face Sokka, who melted just a little bit.

"Who's the new girl?" Mai asked, her dark eyes landing on the young firebender.

If only she could melt into the ground. "We should run now," she advised.

"Gee, ya think?" Sokka asked sarcastically. Azula shot out another fireball at them and Lien grabbed his hand to drag him out of the way, starting the sprint out of the great monstrous machine.

"Why didn't you block that?" he demanded.

Lien made a high pitched, panicked sort of sound in the back of her throat. "You shouldn't reveal everything you can do at once. The longer it takes the Fire Nation to figure out that Aang is learning firebending the better. Also," she tacked on, "I've never met another firebender in my life. I have no idea how to block it."

Sokka's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me?!" he shouted at her. The girl shrugged.

"Where am I going to meet one? In case you didn't notice, they aren't exactly interested in the Si Wong. No one is. We've been untouched by this war directly. I think the last person from the Fire Nation to pass through was my father, and he's dead!" Or close to it, at least. If she recalled correctly, Zhao ended up in the Fog of Lost Souls.

They skidded to a stop when Aang broke off from them.

"You guys go!" he ordered, "I know what I need to do!"

Katara unstrapped her water pouch and threw it at him. "Here! You need this more than I do," she announced, and turned to start sprinting again.

Lien had no problem over taking them. Her legs were longer, her strides took her farther and she left scorched metal in her wake, her fear awakening fire to push her faster, farther.

What she wouldn't give for a sailer right about then.

They came to a halt in front of the slurry pipeline, and after looking in Lien stepped back and shook her head.

"Yeah. No. I'm not going in there," she declared. Sokka grabbed her arm and tugged.

"Come on, it's our way out!"

Lien jerked out of his grip and took another step.

"Not on your life! That place is small, dark, and full of water. Have you been listening to me all day? I'm not going in there! I'll take my chances with the fire princess, thanks."

Sokka paused, and looked at her suspiciously.

"Can you even swim?"

Lien wanted to scream, 'I'm from the desert! Of course I can't swim!'.

Instead, she hissed, "Not well."

Sokka groaned and looked behind them, where Mai and Ty Lee were rapidly approaching. He grabbed her without warning and dove in, ignoring her horrified shrieking and the fire that jumped from her fingertips. It sputtered out the second they touched the sludge, and Lien started thrashing in a panic.

"Stop- struggling!" Sokka snapped, tightening his grip on her. Full of fear and panic, Lien grabbed the boy tight.

It was all she could do.


	12. Chapter 11: City of Walls

**Reviews;**

 **Wicked Neko: Lien will catch a break. Maybe. Probably. Not very soon! And anyhow, here is more for your enjoyment.**

 **moon so bright: I'm very mean to her, aren't I?**

 **Guest from December 11th: Thank you!**

 **Littlemissheadphones: Thank you so much! I always try my best to be original. I've messed up a couple of times, and luckily people have called me on it. I think I'm doing well in this story, at least.**

 **Redtailhawk19: You're in luck! Iroh and Zuko appear here ^^**

 **Jak: This is a little anticlimactic, sorry.**

 **Ceralyn: You're so very welcome! I'm so glad to hear from you!**

 **Guest from February 25th: Thank you so much! I actually really love cliche's? Like, a love using them, it's so much fun, but I never _just_ use a cliche. **

**Cheshirehat: Hello Wendy! Here's an update for you ^^**

* * *

Lien gripped Sokka for all she was worth, her legs were locked around his torso and her arms threatened to strangle him as the water boy tread water on behalf of the both of them. Her breath was sputtering and ragged. Water churned around them, sweeping the pair through the black tunnel.

Her eyes were shut tight. Dark, closed space, water. This was _literally_ the worst thing to ever happen to her.

"Should have stayed at home, should have stayed at home, should have stayed at ho- _oh_!" she screaming so loud a banshee would have cringed when they were spit out of the tunnel and sent sloshing onto the ground. It was like a horrible water slide that ended with her face down in mud, choking and thrashing and getting kicked in the ribs by a boy who knew how to swim.

Lien was yanked upwards by the now-ruined sash that Ying had given her. She coughed and sputtered, spitting muck out of her mouth before she heaved. The concoction that left her throat wasn't worth mentioning. It wasn't worth thinking about.

She was put upon her feet by Sokka, for which she was grateful. Her lungs hurt. Her heart hurt. Her legs were shaking.

But the sun was shining on her back and the warmth sunk down into her skin, stoking the fire that burned inside of her.

"There is a willow grows aslant a brook," she said when she got her breath back, "That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There with fantastic garlands did she come, of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples-"

"Seriously?" Sokka stared at her incredulously but the familiar words calmed her racing heart, so she went on.

"That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, but our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds. Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, when down her weedy trophies and herself fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up," while she chanted, backing away from the massive machine, Toph joined Katara and pushed the water back, forcing Ty Lee further into the sludge. She floating in the churning water. Mermaid-like.

"Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, as one incapable of her own distress, or like a creature native and indued. Unto that element: but long it could not be, till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death."

"You didn't die," Sokka said flatly, crossing his arms.

Lien shrugged, feeling better after her little monologue. "Not this time." She was still annoyed at him for forcing her into the tunnel.

The slurry around her started to boil. She glared at it until it cooled. Lien wondered, idly, if she could melt rocks into magma. That was an earthbending technique, but she was pretty sure that if she got the temperature right…

The earth rolled beneath her feet when Toph lifted them away from the 'splash zone', creating an oh-so-soft landing for Ty Lee. Lien peered over the edge and waved at her. The circus girl pouted and slid down the pillar of stone. A shame. Lien quite liked her. She wondered, idly, if Zhao had raised her and not her mother how things might have gone. Would she have known them? Would the rising military man have sent her to the Fire Academy for Girls? Or would she have been some form of Cabin Girl, a firebender like all others sent to do her 'father's' bidding?

A question for another time.

They had better things to do than sit there while Lien pondered the possibilities of things that had never been and would never be.

Namely, getting into the city they had come so far to see.

It should have been simple. Load onto the monorail, ride it to the station where they would be met with the city representative. That was how it looked like it went in the show.

In real life, they were all brought into a guard house and sat down in front of a lantern and a scribe.

"What are we doing in here?" Aang asked first. He was looking around, taking in the Earth Kingdom tapestries and the walls lined with shelves of scrolls. In one corner was a strange sort of filing cabinet.

"Giving a report on the actions that went on inside of the drill, of course," said the general. Sung said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which, she supposed, for a soldier it might be. For someone like the avatar and his travelling band of merry men, it was less mundane.

Lien propped her chin in her hand and let Sokka do all the talking, with occasional interjections from Aang about how he fought Azula on top of the drill itself. It lasted for hours.

By the time they walked out it was pitch black, no moon to be seen but the crust of dawn touching the edge of the earth. Lien yawned, exhausted. All of this excitement in one day, and she hadn't eaten since they left the Serpent's Pass.

Lien was barely able to listen to the conversation around her as she waved her farewell to the guards on the wall, who were eyeing her with a smidgen less suspicion than they had before, and climbed into the not-subway.

It was not a subway, and it did not go underground, nor was it made of metal that could crunch and impale her if an earthquake came about. It was pushed by earthbenders who would be able to shield her if an earthquake came about and she sat next to the greatest earthbender in the world, who would also shield her if an earthquake came about.

No earthquake, no underground tunnel, no metal poles.

She was good. So good, in fact, that she passed out completely.

She didn't wake up until the sun was in the sky and they were greeted by the plastered smile of Joo Dee.

"Can I skip the tour and get a hotel?" Lien cut into her insistence.

"Maybe you two are missing what I said," Sokka stormed up to Joo Dee, his pack slung off his shoulders. For dramatic effect, Lien figured. "We have information for the Earth King about the war!"

"You are in Ba Sing Se now," Joo Dee said brightly, "Everyone here is safe."

 _There is no war in Ba Sing Se._

* * *

"Okay!" Lien clapped her hands together, getting the attention of everyone in the carriage. They were on their way back from a unsuccessful trip to the University, wherein Joo Dee had skillfully scared the shit out of everyone who might have helped them find the flying bison that had gone missing.

"Two things, Joo Dee. Aang and I will require the backyard to be a zen garden instead of a grass field, would it be possible for us to get sand enough to do that?" she asked, addressing their 'host'.

"Oh yes, I'm quite certain that that will be an easy accommodation to make, and a lovely addition to the home," she would have been more skilled at handling, if she weren't so sharply transparent.

"Excellant. Second thing, I was planning on getting a closer look at the lower ring tomorrow. If we're going to stay in the city this long I'd like to set up a glass working shop. Would you be willing to accompany me?" and give everyone else a little bit of space.

At this her smile wilted a bit. "The lower ring is a wonderful place for craftsmen, but I am sure that it can be arranged that a studio be set up in one of the upper rings, for the convenience of such an honored guest."

Lien waved it off. "Oh, no. I insist. I'll only be here for six to eight weeks, it would be a waste of time to do that. And besides, won't it be such fun for us to look for a shop? We can get tea too!" she leaned across the carriage to clasp the woman's hands. There was a slight tremor in them.

"Ah, yes, very fun," Joo Dee lost some of her conviction in face of the quietest person of their party being so forceful. Truthfully, it was very out of character for her, but she wanted to give her companions a bit of a break. And maybe freak out the girl a little bit.

They stopped in front of the pretty house with the yellow shingles and everyone not from the city stepped out.

"I am sorry no one has seen your bison. Why don't you get some rest? Someone will be over later with dinner," she smiled at them and off the carriage went, rolling down the street.

"While I have her out tomorrow, you guys should be able to get a little more done," she told them. Sokka's eyes lit up.

"It was a trick!"

Lien frowned at him. "It was no such thing, and lower your voice, the whole street will hear you. I do plan on working while we're here. I love my glass, and I hate not getting to work with it."

"Why do you like making it so much anyway?" Aang asked, starting towards the front door.

"Because I'm an artist. Glass is my medium. It's as important to me as my bending. If I couldn't make glass then I don't know what I'd do. By the way, Pao across the street is watching us."

Everyone else's heads snapped around to look at the door across the street, where an older man was, indeed, watching them. Lien went into the house and let them go across the street and interrogate Pao. How she remembered his name after nearly two decades was impressive even to her.

While they went over to talk to their neighbor Lien went to the room that she shared with Katara. Toph had her own, and the boys split. It was fine by her, the bedroom was the size of her apartment had been before the subway crushed her.

She spread herself out on the mat on the floor, letting out a breath. It had been so long since she had been in a big city. There were so many people and sounds and smells that, while her mind knew them all, her body was still trying to adjust.

She would feel better when she had a safe place to work on her art.

She would feel amazing when she got back to her home.

Lien had never wanted to be involved in this war. Truly, she would have much rather stayed in the desert until it was all over. She liked the Gaang well enough. She liked them a lot, actually, when they weren't staring at her like she was a barely tame dog.

Toph she liked a lot. Toph was blunt and didn't seem to give two shits about her heritage. It was nice.

Not a lot of things about Ba Sing Se were nice.

* * *

"I love tea. A man once said, 'If you are cold, tea will warm you. if you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.'" Lien said wisely.

The old man looked down at her. "Truer words have never been spoken. It is a pleasure to serve someone who appreciates good tea."

Lien had never expected that the first shop she suggest she and Joo Dee have tea at would be the one that she had been planning on tracking down. Never in her life had she dreamed that the first building she took a step into would reveal Iroh and Zuko.

If it weren't for the scar on his nephew's face, she would have thought that it was any other old man. Any other wise, kind man. There were many in this world. She had met so many in the harsh light of the desert, travelers looking for a safe place. Refugees seeking redemptions.

Lien sat across from Joo Dee who was still smiling creepily. The firebender propped her chin in her hand, looking at the older woman.

"At his earliest convenience," she said, "I would like to speak to the man in charge of the city."

Joo Dee's smile stayed plastered right where it was.

"The earth king is processing your request right now. One does not simply-"

"Pop in on the Earth King," Lien cut it, quoting her companion. "I wasn't referring to the Earth King."

The smile slipped, just a little.

"I don't understand what you mean."

Lien just hummed. "Alright."

They fell into a rather uncomfortable silence. Lien was used to silences between people. With a cloth guarding her mouth most of her life she had a tendency to communicate mostly with her hands, but this was awkward even for her.

It was Zuko who returned with the tea, his grip not very firm for supporting something so hot.

"Here," he grunted and set the cups down before them. Lien awarded him a smile.

"Thank you," she said simply. He nodded curtly and left. Lien wasn't sure what to think.

"What did you need in your workshop?" Joo Dee asked.

"A forge of some sort, probably. Or even just a large oven I could get going hot enough. Something like a blacksmiths shop, with a bit of refurbishing. The tools I need, I already have mostly, but I will need diamond shears, a soffietta, and easy access to water. As well as a lot of sand. The kind that's heavy in quartz and crystals. On top of that I'll need ground powders of Cobalt Oxide, Cadmium Sulfide, Gold Chloride, Antimony Oxide, Sulfur, Uranium Oxide, Chromic Oxide, and Magnesium Dioxide," she listed. While Joo Dee stared at her she took a sip of the tea and smiled. It was wonderful.

"Where- where would these be found?" She asked at last.

Lien shrugged. She had never made glass from 'scratch' in this life. Her experience with it was based almost solely on the scraps she traded for in the desert.

"Potters use those chemicals too. I would ask them."

"Perhaps you would prefer-"

"I'm not as polite as my friends," she said suddenly. "I don't have the patience," an exaggeration, "or the inexperience to be deterred. I will let many things slip through my fingers but this studio is not one of them. I will procure it with or without your help, Joo Dee."

She stared. Lien did not look away. If she was cursed to be in this god forsaken city, she was going to do what she loved.

Long Feng could eat her if he had a problem with it.


	13. Chapter 12: City of Secrets

**This is shaping up to be my longest chapter yet!**

 **Reviews! We've past 100!**

 **Gerbilfriend: Thank you! I love writing Lien, I don't know why I don't do it more often!**

 **MrCcoz: I was glad to update it! Part of me really wants to do something with that, like an au of my own fanfiction (jesus) where she was raised by Zhao. But also, I am very lazy and I already have a ton of fics going on.**

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 **Guest from March 29th: Lien isn't normally that demanding, so that was fun to write! She's typically a lot more patient, if equally passionate. I was a little worried I was stretching her character, so I'm glad to hear from you!**

 **Circle: You are welcome.**

 **RedtailHawk19: Even if they aren't informed, Lien isn't exactly subtle. Especially since part of what she's going to be doing is teaching Aang about firebending. There's no way the Dai Lee are going to miss that! As for Jet... he's actually in this chapter.**

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 **DearChibico: Lien is like, right on the verge of being pretentious and being wise, and it's really fun to write.**

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* * *

The water was steaming up, out the window. Lien flicked her fingers and the bath heated further. It was a difficult trick, one that had taken her a very, very, long time to master. Water, after all, was a different element from her own. Changing its temperature was very difficult. But heat was heat, and she was a master of it.

With the water hot and ready for her she slipped out Ying's gifted clothes. She folded the tunic neatly, set the sash atop and started unwinding her leg wrappings to put in a pile. Then the ones on her arms. The left went fine, but when she pulled free the last of the right her breath caught and she froze.

There it sat, tight enough against her wrist where she wouldn't feel it move, against her skin where the metal would not feel cool.

The silver gleamed in the fire light. The inscription smiled tantalizingly at her.

 _Enlightenment_.

* * *

Lien took a deep breath before she put her lips to the blowpipe and blew. The molten blob expanded, quickly. Much too quickly.

She yelped and dove to the side when the glass splattered like a popped bubble.

Lien peered out from behind her table, stunned. She had messed up before, and she hadn't expected her skills to be anywhere near what they had been before, but this...

This was a brand new kind of mistake. She's never even heard of someone blowing up their batch. With a sigh she stood up, checked herself for burns, and started cleaning up. The scraps of cooling glass were dropped into her hot pot, and the burned spots on the walls she sucked the heat right out of.

She was lucky enough to find an abandoned blacksmith's smithy with almost everything she needed. The blowpipe had been easy enough to procure, from another smith, and everything else she had either had already or were supplied by Joo Dee.

Lien had never done much work with metal, and so she was pleasantly surprised to find an annealing oven along with everything else. With a few adjustments it would be perfect for her glass. Her original plan was to suck the heat out slowly through the night, but this would require much less effort. Which was just fine with her.

Everyone worked and struggled for their art, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't accept an easier way of doing things. While Glassblowing was an artform over two thousand years old, and it hadn't changed that much, she was not someone who was stuck in the old ways. She evolved and learned and was willing to try new things.

New things such as firebending with molten glass.

New things that she was now regretting.

Lien set up a new batch into the kiln and with a flick of her wrist the fire rose beneath it. The kiln was a bit like a closet with a shelf inside to hold the creations. The fire was built at the bottom, with the flue leading up and out of the building through the chimney. Truthfully Lien prefered a downdraft kiln to an updraft, in that it was more efficient to push the heat in from one side and push it out the other instead of just let it rise through the roof, and it was more fuel efficient. But, they had yet to master natural gas in this world and so it hardly mattered. She didn't think downdrafts even existed yet. Maybe in the Fire Nation, but certainly not in Ba Sing Se.

With the kiln going to melt her newest glass Lien went to play with the pieces in her hot pot. She heated them again, and wondered to herself if an earthbender could do anything with it. Which, gave her an idea.

Joo Dee hadn't accompanied her today, probably because Aang had been chattering excitedly about looking for Appa again. And, of course, the Avatar took precedence, and Lien had already laid her cards on table as far as who she thought to be in charge of the city.

Just because her guide hadn't come along, didn't mean that no one had…

Lien poked her head out the window and peered out, pretending to look for something on the ground from behind her goggles. The reality was she was checking the rooftops for green hats. When she saw them she smiled, lifted her face and waved before they could vanish properly. She caught a flash of chagrin on one of their faces before they were gone, and with a laugh to herself Lien pulled her head back in and heated the glass further.

It took some time before it was warm enough for her to try blowing again, this time with a good amount more success. She rolled it across her bench, smoothed it into an hourglass-ish shape. It was wobbly and malformed but Lien had never felt so much euphoria as she did when she put her first lumpy, misshapen vase into the annealing oven.

She spent the rest of the day skipping around, singing songs in foreign tongue while she drew out shapes into glass menageries, and got a start on sketching out a design for a stain glass window. Something simple at first. Mostly green, she figured. For her nation.

Lien was going to need an assistant soon. She was considering Sokka, or maybe Katara, but truthfully she didn't know if either of them would be willing. Toph would have been her first choice as a person, but she wasn't letting the blind girl anywhere near this much heat.

With these thoughts on her mind the girl exited her new shop, locking the door behind her and setting off. The sun was lowering itself down, heating the sky into streaking pinks and orange. Lien watched it go sadly. She always got tired when the sun went down. A side effect of her people, she figured.

With her bag, made of the tanned hide of a Sand Shark, rested against her back, its flaps securely buckled. While she had no fear of the people here, she didn't care much for pickpockets. Her people were known for thieves, and to be fair she had stolen her fair share when she needed to, but that didn't mean she wanted to have her money or her menageries taken.

On her way to the monorail station Lien found that the tea shop where Iroh and Zuko worked. She peered in, checking the staff, and once she knew the former-prince was cleaning a table she stepped inside.

She smiled at the scarred boy, who barely returned her a neutral expression. He moved back to the kitchen like a storm cloud and Iroh came ambling out towards her with a warm, welcoming smile.

"How nice to see you again!" he said cheerfully. "Allow me to show you to a seat," he requested.

Lien smiled brightly at him, delighted. "Thank you, sir. That's very nice of you."

"Please, call me Mushi," he deferred. It was said with such ease she almost missed the minute grimace when he gave the name he had been bestowed with.

"Lien," she introduced, and saw his eyes light.

"A lovely name. Do you play Pao Sho?" it was would have been a totally out of the blue question if she didn't know what her name meant.

"I do," she settled in her seat. "I do enjoy using the white lotus."

She heard more than saw Zuko's exasperated groan. Her smiled widened.

"Then perhaps you would do me the honor of a game. At a later time, of course," he amended when the owner of the shop, having overheard, cleared his throat.

"I would love to," Lien agreed, "I work down the street. I can't imagine it would be hard to find the time." Especially since no one was telling her what to do. She would set up a shop sometime too, a storefront nearest her workhouse. God knew she had enough money saved up to do it.

"If you have it, may I have a camomile tea, with honey?" she asked, polite as could be. She was planning on going to sleep once she was back at the house, and this might help. She wanted to try for another of those peculiar dreams with Peter.

Perhaps, if she hadn't succeeded yet and she knew Iroh well enough to ask, she might get his input. He knew a lot about spirits. If her memory served her, he had even entered the spirit world at some point before his ascension into the spirit world itself.

"Of course," Iroh smiled again at her and disappeared into the kitchen with Zuko and Pao. Lien pulled her sketch book. While she waited for her tea she worked on designing a chandelier that she wouldn't have the skill to create for some time yet. With long flowers blooming into budding flames, and twining vines that stretched out.

A cup was set down near the top corner of her book and Lien looked up to see Zuko. She had never realized from the cartoon exactly how horribly scarred he was. The trenches of the burn were deep and the skin was rough and bordered on scaley. His ear was destroyed, and if he could hear out of his Lien would be personally amazed.

It was gruesome. It made her stomach roll with boiling anger as Ozai for laying his fire upon his own son.

Lien smiled sweetly and thanked him, before asking his name.

"Li," he said shorty.

"Li, like Dawn, or Power, or Logic?" she asked, reaching for the cup. It was hot.

Zuko eyed her oddly. "Dawn," he said at last, before he left her alone.

He was so standoffish, it was a little bit funny. Lien thought so at least. Many patrons proably wouldn't agree with her. Customer service was a very big part of any business, and with service as rough as that Lien would be surprised how many people came back for anything more that Iroh's tea.

Which was more than enough reason to return.

Lien spent enough time in there sipping tea and chatting now and again with the staff that by the time she was done the son was gone entirely. She set out, slumping her shoulders and staring three feet ahead of her steps. Keeping from looking too out of place.

She glanced into the ally by the Pao Family Tea Shop and saw a boy with wild hair pull himself hurriedly behind a bin of debris. Jet.

With a breath she set forth once more. Heading for her new home.

* * *

"Lesson number one," _winter, summer, moon, and sun_ , "Light this on fire."

Lien handed him a candle, one of the three that she had brought out with them.

Aang looked at it dubiously. "My last teacher told me not to make a fire," he said.

"I'm not your last teacher," Lien retorted. She drew one of her legs up to her chest and propped her chin on her knee to watch. Her hands, once again wrapped in the long strips of cloth, were clasped on top of her shin.

Aang looked between her and the candle before he took a deep breath. He was visibly steeling himself for this activity. He was afraid. Which was utterly ridiculous. Lien tried to be patient, but she wasn't made of earth, and endless equanimity. She was born of fire, and everlasting evolution.

Aang put the candle on the ground placed both hands around it, one on either side. His brow furrowed. The wick lit.

Lien placed both of the other candles on either side of his. With a wave of her hand they lit.

"Now. Put yours out," she nodded at the one in the center.

Aang took a deep breath before Lien held her hand up.

"Not like that," she interrupted. "Like this."

The reached for the fire and made a motion like she was pulling. The fire stretched to follow her fingers before it left the wick. She took her energy away and the light went out. There were at least ten different ways to get that same result, but this one was the easiest. Especially for a beginner.

"You remember how I told you fire exists?" she asked.

"With Fuel, Heat, and Air, right?" When she nodded he smiled at her, full of teeth. He was a sweet kid.

"Right. So if you pull it away from it's regular fuel, the wick, and then cut off your supply, your chi, then the fire will die. Try."

Aang looked again at the fire. He reached for it, slowly. Carefully. When he pulled it was with the fluidity of a waterbender, and she was silently impressed. The fire flickered, twisted, and came off the wick.

"Now, cut off your energy," she nodded to him. Aang obeyed. The fire went out.

"Keep doing that," she instructed, "Until you're bored out of your skull. Then yell for me."

Lien stood up up, brushed herself off and went a few feet away. The sand for the Zen garden hadn't come in yet, which was why they were only doing this much.

The girl started going through the motions of sandbending, sweeping herself through long strikes and stretches. She reached for the sun and centered herself upon the earth. Any real firebender would have been horrified. Only a few of her strikes were sharp and straight enough to count. That was what she knew. What she could do.

She didn't know how, but Aang managed to pass over two house starting and stopping candles, of all things. Lien would have grown bored and wandered into something else. She supposed that Aang had learned his lesson with Jeong Jeong.

"Okay," Aang said at last, "What now?"

Lien looked back at him and shrugged. "Melt the wax. Without a fire."

"How?" he looked very puzzled. Lien was aware of the arrival of Sokka, who Katara where she was sitting on the edge of the back porch. She had been there since the beginning, watching the two of them with sharp eyes.

"Fire is Fuel, Air, and Heat," she repeated for what had to be the third time. "These can be separated. As long as your produce the heat and the energy, but keep them separate from the air, or you fail to produce a spark, you can heat things without necessarily lighting anything on fire. Observe."

She straightened up, pointing to the candle nearest to her and focused. The air between her and the candle shimmered. She narrowed her eyes, snapped her fingers, and the candle fell apart into a puddle of wax.

"Don't try it from too far away, or with anything between you and your target just yet. These are only the basics."

"These seem like pretty advanced basics," Katara spoke up at last.

Lien looked over at the water girl and shrugged helplessly. "I was never actually taught firebending. Everything I know is from trial and error, and what little I could pick up at the library. And theory. Mostly theory that I've proven correct. So Aang is lucky, he's going to learn the most unique form of firebending ever. Shit I made up."

"That, doesn't inspire a lot of confidence," Sokka said dryly. One more, Lien shrugged.

"Well you're stuck with me. Unless you can find another firebender in Ba Sing Se willing to teach the Avatar, in which case I will get out of your hair, and out of this creepy-ass city."

"Oh come on," Katara scolded, "It's not that bad."

Lien stared at her blankly. "That is a lie."

* * *

It was almost a full two weeks into her work before Lien finally climbed onto the roof across from the Pao Family Tea house. She felt more than saw her babysitters hide themselves from her, but they weren't why she was there.

"I don't know if you're stalking me or Pao, but whichever it if you are seriously creepy."

Jet spun around, a hook erupting from his side to swing at her. Lien yelped and scrambled back, almost falling off the roof before she grabbed the secondary hook that had come at her and latched onto it.

The end result was her being hauled back, onto her knees, while Jet fell down next to her because of the sudden change in weight and his own panic.

Lien stared at him, and for a second her stared at her before he stood up, his weapons holding to his sides.

"Who are you?" he demanded shortly. A very unattractive quality.

"I'm Lien," she said simply. She pointed to the south, "I work in that building with the red chimney."

Jet eyed her, distrustful, before he said, "I'm not following you, or Pao."

"Then why are you here watching the shop, instead of going inside?" Lien reasoned. She cocked her head, feigning cluelessness.

Jet looked at her very closely, squinting. Scrutinizing. She didn't know what he was looking for, but he must have seen it. For he told her.

"Those two guys in there, Mushi and Li. They're Fire Nation."

Lien glanced over at the shop and frowned. She had a lot of the traditional Fire Nation features too. Black hair, gold eyes. But her skin was darker than that, thanks to her mother and her years in the desert.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, scooting closer to the edge of the roof. She was very careful not to deter or insult him. She showed no judgement.

Jet's eyes lit.

"The old man firebent. I saw it," he got closer to her, his eyes narrowed at the shop where Li was taking out the trash to the side of the building.

"Well, just because he's a firebender, doesn't mean he's Fire Nation."

"What are you talking about?" he practically spat the words at her, "Of course it does!"

Liens mouth thinned into a line. "Not really. I mean, they might not be Fire Nation, Fire Nation, you know? We've been at war with them for what, a hundred years? There's gotta be a ton of bastards running around with Fire Nation parents. Especially the ones with bending. It might not even have been a choice for the other person."

She saw him go still. He had fought had seen travesties. He knew what she was referring too.

"And if bending is genetic, then they wouldn't have any choice in it at all."

Jet scowled at her. "Firebenders are dangerous. They don't have any business in Ba Sing Se."

Lien didn't say anything. Jet was a stubborn, traumatized child. She couldn't say she blamed him for his logic. It hurt, but she understood.

She stood up. "Even if that's true there's no sense in you sitting up here all night. Why don't I buy you some tea? Then you can still watch them, and you'll also have tea." The logic was perfectly sound to her.

Jet eyed her suspiciously before he looked back at the tea house. "I'm not drinking Fire Nation tea."

Lien said only, "suite yourself," before he left, climbing down the wall to go into the tea shop again. She greeted Iroh by his new name and went to the table in the corner. He got his breaks about this time at night, when the rush was dying down. She had taken to playing Pao Sho with him every night.

So far, she had lost every game.

* * *

"Does your son play?" Lien asked, pushing her Air piece into harmony with Iroh's White Lotus.

"My son?" Iroh looked very surprised, before he followed her gaze to Zuko, who was cleaning off a recently vacated table with a very firm scowl upon his face. Iroh's eyes softened.

"He is my nephew, actually, but I think of him as a son."

"He seems to have an admirer," Lien tilted her head to Jin, who kept peeking at Zuko over her tea cup.

Iroh laughed. "I believe you are correct. I must get a plant, in case he brings her home."

Lien joined him, her voice ringing in light peels. While she was considering the rather uncomfortable looking Zuko, Iroh set to disrupt her harmony, and put in place his third. Not a good sign for her. With that disruption she was down to two, and he was only one away from beating her. Again.

She reached for her tea and, without thinking, reheated it to steaming before she moved her Earth piece into place. While she was drinking she glanced at Iroh to find him staring at her. At her tea.

Their eyes met before he looked back at the game and Lien looked back at her tea.

"Sorry," she said without meaning to.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Iroh countered her. "Only a recommendation towards caution."

Lien nodded and took a drink. Iroh moved a piece. Her mind turned around the change on the board.

"You and Li have the same eyes as I do," eyes sparking with fire. It was an inquiry.

"Mmm, the city is home to many people, from many places," Iroh said neutrally. Lien wondered if this was what politics were like.

"I was born to the Gansu, of the Si Wong," she didn't know why she was trying to justify herself. She pushed another Earth piece into place. Created her third Harmony.

"I visited the desert once, on our way here," Iroh picked up the new topic, a new move. "The sunset was beautiful."

Lien gave a smile and moved another piece, creating a Disharmony.

"The desert is a beautiful place. It's hard to see, if one only looks at the surface," her eyes caught onto an err in Iroh's next move. "But for those who pay attention, for those who seek that which her sands hide, they will always find gold in the sands."

She pushed her own White Lotus into place and marked her fourth Harmony. She very carefully was not smug. She didn't warn Iroh. She didn't need to.

In one move he created his fourth Harmony, broke hers, and left her without a way to stop him from winning. Lien bowed her head to the old general.

"Next time, I might win," she put forth, half joking. Iroh smiled at her, old, wise, and too kind for someone who had seen the things that he had.

"It is my fondest wish that the next generation be greater than mine."

* * *

"I told you, I don't want Fire Nation tea," Jet snapped the words at her when she set the cup down by his side. She was more careful this time. She made sure he heard her coming.

"Then drink Si Wong tea instead," she sat next to him, a cup of her own in her other hand and a thick ceramic thermos in the other. "Unless you think that I used firebending to heat it."

Jet glared at her. "I know what I saw."

"I believe you," Lien confessed. "I don't agree that Li and Mushi are up to no good, but I'm sure you saw something."

Jet was placated enough to sniff the tea before sipping it.

"How can you think that firebenders could be doing anything but bad?" he asked at last.

"I've only ever known a few firebenders. Mostly bastards from the war or people's whose mothers were…. Less than willing to carry a child for a firebender," Ozai hadn't exactly given Ursa a choice. Her grip on her cup tightened. "Mostly, they tried to hide it and live regular lives."

Jet grunted. "Yeah, well, I'm not taking any chances. What is this?" He nodded to the tea. His eyes never left the tea shop, where Zuko was moving in front of the window, serving Genji and Miroko, a pair of very gay, very sweet blacksmiths who had commissioned from her a glass display with their names on it, something to sound pretty when the wind blew outside their little house. It was next to the storefront she rented in the Middle Ring, open only twice a week.

"It's Brown Ephedra tea. It quenches thirst and boosts energy. You look like you could use it," she stared, very pointedly, at the bags under his eyes.

"My friends don't believe me. They won't help me with this. They don't see the danger in two firebenders hiding out in Ba Sing Se. For all we know they could be here to kill the Earth King!"

Lien looked at him, thoughtful. Pensive. She didn't like listening to him talk like this, but he would tell her, sometimes, what it was like to live in a tree. About the system of pulleys and counterweights that they employed to let them soar into the canopies. Lien had never been in a big forest. Her whole life had been spent in a jungle of concrete or a desert devoid of anything taller than twenty feet.

"Is that really what you're worried about? The Earth King?" she asked at last.

Jet faltered and at last looked at her. "What?"

"Do you fear for the King, or the People?" she rephrased herselfs carefully. Jet drew himself up.

"I'm not afraid of anything!"

Lien awarded him with a flat look.

"Fine. Are you doing this to _protect_ the King, or the People? Or are you just doing this out of your own personal grudge?"

Jet opened his mouth to answer her before he stopped. He looked back at the tea house, his face darkened with the shadows of the setting sun.

"What would you know about me?" he snapped, but it was quieter.

Lien felt for him, enough that she touched his hand, gently, and only for a moment.

"All I know is what you've told me. It's not my intention to make assumptions," it was as close as she would allow herself to come to an apology.

"The Fire Nation took everything from me," he said darkly, glaring at Zuko through the window.

Lien hummed, thinking to herself. "Fire is a source of the greatest change in the world. It can bring light to the darkness, or turn the living into ash."

"Who said that?" Jet asked, sounding annoyed but playing along. He had heard her quote enough people to recognize words of wisdom. The girl smiled.

"I did."

* * *

"I don't get what this has to do with firebending," Aang informed her blandly. He was staring at the pie she had placed in front of him, on top of a stone she asked Toph to lift from the earth. It was one of a dozen they had put into a line across the new yard.

They had finally lost the grass, and been gifted with their zen garden. Sand spread around them in swirls. A few patches of green remained, and a large sphere of stone took its place in the center.

"You're always worried about burning people," Lien said it very flatly, "So I'm teaching you control."

"What does baking have to do with control?" Sokka asked, "Follow up, who get's the pie?"

"When it comes to baking if you get it too hot it burns, too cold it doesn't cook, and if the temperature it uneven it'll screw everything up. So, bake the pie."

Lien stood up then and walked over to the rock to stand on top of. Aang frowned at the pie before he took a deep breath and punched his hand forward, sending the flames out. It was nothing more than a sharp burst, and he had to punch again. It was not going to work at all, Lien could tell just by watching. But she let Aang keep going. Mostly because she was busy basking like some form of lizard. She was even dressed in green.

"Um. i think it's burning," Sokka piped up.

A glance revealed that the pie was charred. Black, almost entirely, except for the other side which was still pale. Lien crossed her legs and shook her head at the boy.

"I think Sokka's right," Lien made a pulling motion and sucked all the heat out of the pie so it was safe to handle. "Try this."

Lien pushed forward a small jet of fire towards the pie closest to her. Instead of blasting it directly she twisted her hand like a mime doing a disk jockey and the fire swirled into an unbroken hoop around the pie. There she lifted its flames evenly.

She didn't let the fire fade or waver. Her breathing was even and her posture was straight. She was still, like the stone that she wasn't.

Aang stared at it before he tried to mimic her. The result was a weird crescent that cut off halfway around his pie. He frowned and tried again, to a similar response.

"Maybe try a wider range of motion?" Lien suggested.

Aang tried, and this time the fire shot too far into the curve and shot onto the sand. The exact reason it was there. His frowned deepened.

"I don't get it. When I was working with Jeong Jeong it was so easy." he complained.

Lien shrugged. Her fire stayed where it was.

"This is a self-created form of firebending. It's probably that before you remembered part of it from your past lives, but I doubt any other Avatar's have tried to cook a pie with firebending. Or used it in the way that I do. You're putting too much force behind it. Let it breath. Fire isn't something to force like a rock or give in to like air. Fire is alive, with its own desire to keep existing. You have guide it with your chi and intent, and curb it from leaving you."

As she spoke she moved her arms, circling them slowly. The fire turned with her, burning low around the edges of the pie. Her words weren't quite right. They didn't capture the essence of what she meant, but she hadn't rehearsed a speech on the nature of firebending. She should have.

Whatever she said, Aang must have gotten the gist of it, for he had a decent circle the next time. A circle the sputtered into sparks before snapping up into high flames. Aang's brow broke with sweat.

Lien, for her part, showed no visible signs of exertion. For her firebending was as easy as breathing. The fire beat in time with her heart, fluttered in time with her breath. It was so deeply ingrained into her that there was no disconnect between them.

Aang was different. Aang was struggling, he had rejected fire and only now started to accept it, and as a result he was fighting to get it into place.

Lien waited, patient, until her pie was just darkened into brown on the edges before she let her fire die away. Aang was still unsteady, and had moved on to his fourth attempt.

"You can have that if you want it, Sokka," she offered, gesturing to the pie.

The boy's face lit up. "Is there meat in it?!"

Lien laughed. "Strawberries, actually."

"I'll take a piece of that," Toph declared. When Sokka shouted and lunged for the still steaming pie she stomped on the ground and slammed a pillar of earth into his stomach. Sokka doubled over, groaning, while the little earth bender grabbed the pie with stone covered hands.

Lien laughed again at their antics and hopped down from the stone, going in to fetch some plates and knives for them.

She was very well aware of the eyes on her retreating back.


	14. Chapter 13: City of Friendship

**Gerbilfriend: truly an underestimated ability!**

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 **MrCcoz: Thanks! The hardest, and the easiest, part of this story is probably Lien's firebending. Because its so different from Zuko's or Azula's, but so similar to the other three, it really makes for a weird variety in skills and weaknesses.**

 **TheWorldIsACessPoolOfImbiciles: God I love Shakespeare! He was such an awesome writer and his plays are always hilarious, and tragic, and dramatic all at once! I have so many feelings about his plays, it's not even funny, okay? I had to put some of his work in here, especially when I have a character like Lien who makes it easier to get away with. And thank you for the king words, I should kill thee with much cherishing.**

 **DearChibico: You're review number 123! I was hoping the little Mulan bit wouldn't get over looked! I'm working pretty hard on Jet's bit, to be honest. I have trouble not just magically altering his prejudices into a change I want to see(which is that he has none). So it's good to know other people are enjoying that!  
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 **Lightsbane1905: I actually read a theory about that a while back! I think it was by FuzzyBeta, but essentially its that it takes fire and earth heritage to lavabend! Since Bolin is the only non avatar who's parentage is confirmed and can lavabend, and Ghazan could easily be Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, it's not a very far stretch. I actually have a theory that, if done right, firebending could be changed into _light_ bending. Now that would be a bit of a stretch, considering that fire and lightning are both plasma and light itself is not typically considered a phase of matter, but I do think that its possible, if we take into account that fact that we're talking about magic superpowers and science doesn't always have a holding on that. So yeah, lightbending is a thing in my head. **

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* * *

The Avatar cycle confused her.

It was strange in that, for every life he had to learn to do the same thing. For every life Aang was a totally different person, but his spirit was meant to be connected to hundreds of others. Yet, if he wanted to know something they did, he had to speak to the former Avatar's face-to-spirit's face. That was, apparently, how reincarnation worked here.

Except for her. Lien was not Lien, who had to ask her advice from Harmony. Lien was merely Lien, a name taken after Harmony. It was, to her, the same as when her mother called her Mimi instead of her actual name. She was still Harmony, she had all her memories, all of her knowledge, and she was redeveloping her skills.

So what on earth was up with Aang and his former lives? Why couldn't he just summon up the information he needed? Or was it because, there were so many of them, they had to seperate each other by personality or all of their memories would be lost and forgotten, like an adult growing out of childhood memories? But if that was the case, why hadn't her own memories grown far more distant?

Lien was still considering all of this when Jet stood up from where he was sitting next to her. She had been sketching idly on her pad, a bouquet of flowers she had been asked to make Xiao and Tang's anniversary while her thoughts wandered away with her.

"I'm going to find a bathroom," he declared. Lien fished out a key and offered it to him.

"You can use my workshop," she offered. Jet looked surprised, but took the key all the same.

"You'll watch them?" he looked back at the tea shop, eying the two firebenders.

Lien waved her hand at him idly. "Scouts honor."

While he shot her a very weird look he still hopped over the edge of the roof. Lien felt weird spying on Zuko and Iroh, but more than anything else she was drawing. And thinking, about the discrepancies in reincarnation.

Lien swung her bag off of her shoulder and pulled it open, allowed her to access to the almonds she kept inside. Some foods were the same as they had been before her untimely death. It was a small comfort.

The firebender cracked through the nuts, focused mostly on her work as opposed to the banished prince across the street. It wasn't like he was going anywhere, and if they hadn't noticed Jet they weren't going to notice her.

Zuko and Iroh weren't the only ones.

"Hey, Jet, we brought you- You're not Jet."

Which was about the most interesting introduction she could have imagined for Smellerbee and Long Shot to have to her.

She looked over her shoulder at the pair, gold eyes squinting against the sun. She had left her goggles at the house, unfortunately.

"No, I'm not," she agreed. "You aren't either."

"Where is he?" Smellerbee asked, looking around the rooftop. Jet travelled light, but there was still a few wrappers from a bun shop, and an apple core in the corner.

"He went to the bathroom. Are you, friends of his?" she couldn't' remember if Jet had told her about his friends, or if she merely remembered them from her past. She didn't want to take the risk that it was latter.

"Yeah," the girl nodded slowly, glanced at her friend, and when he nodded at her she went on. "I'm Smellerbee, this is Long Shot."

"My name is Lien. Nice to meet you."

Recognition lit up Smellerbee's face. "You're Lien! Jet talks about you."

She didn't have to fake her surprise. She sat straighter, her eyes getting wider despite the bright light that haloed Long Shot's wide hat.

"Jet talks about me?" she asked, incredulous.

"Yeah. He says you're some weird sage girl," Smellerbee confirmed. She walked closer and plopped down. Lien was heavily impressed with the utter lack of sound she made when he moved, not even clicking her armor or the knife in her belt.

"That's… pretty accurate, actually. Huh," Lien scratched her cheek. It was no wonder the scar was still there. "So you guys are Jet's, um, Freedom Fighters. Right?"

"That's right," the smaller girl agreed, nodding.

"So, you know how to fight pretty well, right?" Lien's mind turned around. She had been planning on asking Sokka, or finding someone in the Fire Nation, but this was just as good.

"Yeah, why?" Smellerbee's head cocked to the side. Long Shot sunk onto the roof's edge. His bow was managed carefully. Neither of them made a sound.

"Well, you see, I was raised by sandbenders. So I can fight, sort of, but I'm no earthbender. And that's what they focused on. So I'm not that good with the whole, hand to hand thing," and when they invaded on the Day of Black Sun, she doubted she would be allowed to simply stand back and watch.

"So, do you think you could show me what you know sometime?" she asked, offering the girl an awarding smile.

Smellerbee was openly surprised. Lien waited, patiently. Watched the girl shift silently on the rooftop before she finally shrugged under her armor.

"I guess. But, why not ask Jet? You know him better."

Lien smiled warmly. "Yeah, but Jet's a _boy_. He can't move the way us girls can."

Smellerbee sat straighter. A smile, close lipped, spread across her face. She was cute.

"When do you wanna start?"

"As soon as Jet get's back?"

Smellerbee nodded, and Lien smiled back at her. Through all of this, Long Shot watched silently.

And so, too, did the Dai Lee.

* * *

The clock chimed midnight.

Somewhere, far behind her back, the bells rang. It echoed, deep in her bones. The wind blew outwards, catching her hair and snatching it around her face until she could see nothing.

Lien turned, and the wind snapped around her. Her dress was a sail, helpless to the pull. It dragged her off her feet until she was stumbling, pulling her hair out of her eyes to look around at the wide green fields and the brightly colored trees that surrounded it.

One of them reached a shimmering pink branch down to her face.

"Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild, with a faery hand in hand-"

"For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand," she murmured. Thoughtless, she placed her hand into the softly luminescent leaves. Her bracelet caught in the light and she pulled her hand back, suddenly. The reflection upon its service was not the tree she faced.

Teeth closed in the air inches from where her fingers were. She looked up at the grotesque maw that bared her a gruesome grin.

The clock struck again. The wind howled and Lien ran.

She ran, faster, faster, until she had left the mockery of an anglerfish behind her and was sweeping across the earth. Skirts melted into pants which vanished into nothing as she launched into the sea.

The water hit her as a truck. A whale sang over her ear. The water parted and a congregation walked past her, lead by a man with a staff. Above head a behemoth of a shark was visible only because of the shadow it cast upon the people.

A single thread from a tapestry, it's color brightly shining, caught her eye and Lien picked it off of the ground. Peter held the other end.

They walked, out of the ocean and into the Library.

Wan Shi Tong was settled in front of a Pai Sho board.

Lien moved her White Lotus.

* * *

"Am I doing this right?" Aang asked, staring at the fire in front of him. It licked up from the fire pit, towards a white blob on a stick. Lien was heating hers without the flames. She hated charred marshmallows.

"It depends. How cooked do you want it?" she asked.

The little Airbender gave her a funny look. "I don't know. I've never had one of these before."

"Then I guess you'll just have to experiment," she reasoned breezily.

"What does this have to do with firebending?" Katara asked, working some marshmallow out of her hair. They hadn't existed previously, so Lien had conscripted the water girl to help her make them. The result was both of them covered in sticky goo after a, ahem, minor explosion.

"Nothing," she shrugged. "It's just fun. And they taste good."

"I can't believe you guys made a mess without me," Toph complained, poking a misshapen snack on the table in front of her. She'd been eating them raw for half an hour, or flicking them into Sokka's mouth. The aim of a blind girl was terrifying. So was way Sokka jumped for it like a fish.

"Next time, you'll be the first person I call," Lien promised, patting her shoulder. She stuck the poofing marshmallow on a slice of bread covered in cinnamon and shoved it into her mouth, for-going manners. It wasn't like Toph gave a damn.

In fact it was only Katara that would give her flack, and she was looking at Aang, watching him struggle to roast his mock upped marshmallow.

"So, are you ever going to get around to teaching Aang actual firebending?" Sokka asked, looking over at her.

Lien frowned a little. "What do you mean? I am teaching him."

"Yeah, little tricks. But what about that wall you made when there were the buzzard wasps?" he pressed, and the girl understood. He meant the destructive, combat based stuff.

"When he's ready," She said simply. And it was a cop out, honestly. She was still working out how to teach him, and what. Nothing she showed him would be traditional firebending, not any of it. It was just improvisation and trial and error, and a smash of sandbending. He could probably do more than she could. An irritating reality for someone who had spent so many years on the art, but a fact she was sure of.

Sokka eyed her. "Are you doing that vague thing on purpose so you sound wise and owlish?" he demanded.

Lien smiled at him. "You think I'm wise?" she asked, leaning in towards him, her teeth bared.

He pulled back, made a face, and scooted closer to the fire.

"I think you think that you think that if you talk like that I'll think that you're wise," he corrected quickly. On impulse, Lien booped his nose before she stood up and brushed off her skirts.

"I'm going to bed," she announced, and spun away, leaving Sokka to stare at her back. Lien clasped her hands together, trying not to giggle at the confusion she had caused. It was fun, and what was like without a little bit of fun?

* * *

Lien had never wanted to run so far away from anything than she did when she stepped into a ballroom where the party was being held. She did her best not to fiddle with her wide bell sleeves or the heavy decorum in her hair. The robes she wore were heavy and she was, again, reminded of Ophelia.

Only this time, Sokka was nowhere to be seen to save her.

Lien took a breath, quietly. The lanterns in the room brightened minutely.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" their guide asked, turning kind eyes upon them. If Lien didn't know better, she would have been charmed instantly by his personality. "By the way, I am Long Feng. I'm a cultural minister to the King."

Katara said, "I'm Hwamei, and this is Kalama and Dung."

While Lien, who had picked her name before hand for private irony, smiled at Long Feng, Toph grabbed the beads on Katara's head dress and yanked, making her yelp.

"A pleasure," Long Feng said, "Now, where is your family? I would love to meet them."

And there was the problem with their lie. It didn't help that Katara slipped up her Proper Lady Talk when trying to excuse them, and Long Feng, ever the gentlemen, stepped in to keep as their escort.

Lien said her thanks and focused on facing forwards and not burning something on accident. When Toph stepped away to get another crab puff and Katara followed her Lien fixed Long Feng with a stare. She knew they were to be caught anyway, so there was no point in feigning ignorance beyond now.

"By any chance did Joo Dee pass my request for an audience onto you?" she inquired. His polite smile did not change at all.

"You're an observant girl. She did. I don't have much time on my hands," there was no apology in words. Lien didn't know what to make of that.

"Of course. With a city this large I'm sure you're very busy conserving the culture. I do hope my glass making isn't stirring up too much distress," she smiled lightly. Trying. She was honestly very scared. Long Feng could have her executed or worse with only a few words.

"It isn't your glass that would do the damage," he said dryly. "If you'll excuse me, I have a King to see to. Joo Dee will escort you back."

"Ah, actually," she stepped towards him, daring more than she thought she would. Her pulse beat hard in her ears. "Aang would like to speak to you."

"To me?" he repeated, looking marginally dubious. He never let up his charming, galant persona. Lien was silently impressed with his acting abilities.

"Well, he thinks he need to speak to the Earth King, but I doubt that would be, ah, preferable to anyone," she waited into his brow cocked and took that as a sign to continue. "He has information he wants to pass on to whomever controls the army. Since the King is essentially out of the picture-"

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se," it was a warning.

"With respect, they have breached this wall twice. If Ba Sing Se is going to continue to be war free, you may wish to listen to what he has to tell you."

Long Feng narrowed his eyes at her, minutely. "I do not need the advice of-"

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a delighted cry of, "I didn't know the Avatar was going to be here!"

Both of them turned to see Aang leap out of his disguise and start bending for the entertainment of the nobles and the bear. Lien frowned.

"Subtle as a brick in the face," she said dryly. Long Feng flicked his hand up a few degrees and a Dai Li smoothly slipped to his side.

"Show her to the Library," he ordered. Lien smiled politely at the Dai Li and followed him without needing any restriction.

Idly, she said, "You know, a proper gentleman would escort me with an arm."

The man glanced at her before facing forwards again. Lien frowned. How dull.

She and Aang were the only ones who went in willingly. Everyone else had at least trace amounts of dust on their clothes and mouths. Lien felt bad for them. They had no idea what was going on. Poor things.

Lien looked around the library, delighted at being in such a familiar place once more. It was nice, and familiar, and she was much more calm, more comfortable, there than she had been pretending to be something she was not. She only wished she could rub the make up off her skin. Except maybe the lip paint. She liked how it looked.

While Lien looked at all of the books she was surrounded by Long Feng came in and sat on the bench in front of the green burning fire. Copper sulfate. It was a nice touch. She only joined them when she had to.

"Why won't you let us see the Earth King?" Sokka demanded. "We have information that could end the war with the Fire Nation."

"The Earth King has no time to get involved with political squabbles and the day to day minutia of the military," Long Feng deflected smoothly.

"This could be the most important thing he's ever heard," Aang beseeched the man, gesturing grandly.

"What is most important to his majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters," Long Feng said plainly. "It is my job to maintain of the cities other resources, including the military." The man shifted on the seat and awarded them a sort of smile. It was inviting, actually. Lien was amazed. She knew he was horrible and she almost fell for the act. Her skin crawled.

"So the king is just a figurehead," Katara realized.

Lien didn't know why Toph exploded to shout at Long Feng about the king being a puppet. The man raised his hand in defense.

"Oh no, no. His Majesty is an icon, a god to his people. He can't sully himself with the hourly changes of an endless war."

Her friends couldn't take a hint.

"We found out about a solar eclipse that could leave the Fire Nation defenseless! You could lead an invasion-"

Long Feng stood suddenly and with two steps he had silences Sokka.

"Enough. I don't want to hear anymore about your ridiculous plan. It is the strategic plan of Ba Sing Se that the war not be mentioned inside city walls. Constant news of the war will throw the citizens into a state of panic. Our economy would be ruined, our peaceful way of life, our traditions would disappear. In silencing talk of it, our city maintains a peaceful era as a utopia. The last one on earth."

Katara stepped forward. "The people have to know!"

Lien could only watch as Aang threatened the most powerful man in the city. She rubbed her temple. The fire behind Long Feng lifted up a little higher. He glanced at her and she looked elsewhere. A woman who was most certainly not Joo Dee came and escorted them home.

Lien wanted nothing more than to return to the desert she belonged to. To return to her mother.

Instead, she returned to a fancy house under the guise of being a guest, instead of a prisoner.


	15. Chapter 14: City of Learning

**That is a whole lot of a reviews, wow! Thank you guys so much!**

 **Gerbilfriend: Yeeeah she tried so hard, and got so far.**

 **Actualcypher: Talk about timing! I love it when that happens ^^ Thank you, I really tried to make Lien a good character. I tried to make it realer, but I don't like making things dark, personally. I find it depressing if things are** _ **too**_ **real, ya know?**

 **Anonymous Legacy: Lien is, at the core of everything, a good person with good survival instincts. And as that goes on, we'll see those two things clash, along with her time in the desert, and her heritage as a Gansu. I haven't delved much into it yet, but I will get there.**

 **Lightsbane1905 : I don't know why but that played in my head like a creepy kids song in a horror movie.**

 **Akagami hime chan: I know! These children are all such terrible liars, my god.**

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 **Guest from July 5th: Yeah…. We're just not gonna tell Aang that**

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 **De junco: Wow, you have really been thinking about this story, thank you for the review! I really hope this next chapter doesn't disappoint.**

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* * *

"Something troubles you."

Lien wasn't surprised that Iroh noticed. She had been doing well in their Pai Sho games, and for her to lose twelve in less than an hour was out of the blue. Even Zuko had been eying her strangely for a while, when she had deigned not tease him that day.

She looked at the old man, pressed her lips together, and nodded slowly.

"Yes. Last night was… stressful," she confessed. She didn't know that she wanted to tell them everything. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she did it might put them in danger. Lien feared the Dai Lee, but more than that she feared the ruler of a city who was so feared that loyalty was bought by a fourteen year old girl who inspired further terror.

"Do you wish to speak of it?" he offered, and waved Zuko over for more tea. The boy brought it with a long suffering sigh.

Lien considered it while she plucked her cup from Zuko's hands with a soft thanks. The tea was jasmine, and Zuko, bless him, remembered she liked honey.

"You're sweet," she said, patting his arm lightly. The boy jerked from her and grumbled, his cheeks red. To Iroh, she said, "I attended a party with people much more important that I. I am an artist, not a politician. I shouldn't be anywhere near the aristocracy unless I'm there for their money."

"You could be a politician, if you chose. You think well before you speak." Lien didn't know if it was a compliment or not. She looked out the window, caught Jet's eyes from above the street. So he hadn't confronted Zuko last night. How curious.

"Thank you. I think. Recent event's have shown otherwise," she shook her head.

"One failure does not mean there will never be a success," Iroh said wisely.

"I don't know how much you know of the rest of the Kingdom," truth, swirled under lies that he didn't even know she was telling, "But my people, the Desert Dwellers of the Si Wong, are not looked on favorably. We do what it takes to survive, and for that we are cast as honorless thieves, bandits and beggars, who will swindle a cat of his coat if one is not careful. We must speak carefully when trading and bargaining, or we will gain nothing. And we cannot afford to lose without acquiring in return. Thought we may show charity on the lost, the desert does not. Not even to her own sons and daughters."

Lien wasn't sure where the tangent came from. It was something she had stored inside her heart for a long time. Her cup steamed when she brought it back to her lips.

"That goes double for a warm blooded bastard."

Iroh's frown was so minute she might have missed it if she hadn't been searching his face. So he didn't like how she had addressed herself? The old man cared. She smiled when she set her cup down and moved a tile.

"If the desert is so terrible, why live there?" Zuko asked. Lien was surprised he had returned in time for her little speech. He had seemed preoccupied with his own embarrassment.

"Lee," Iroh chided, "Don't be rude to your friend."

"She's not my friend!" Zuko snapped, whirling on his uncle. Lien caught the plate the toppled off of his tray on instinct. She swallowed thickly and handed it back, making certain not to touch his fingers. She set her cup aside and stood so she could bow.

"I should go," she said to Iroh, "Thank you for humoring me."

"Nonsense," he argued, "You don't need to leave just because my nephew never learned to control his temper."

"It's fine," she insisted. She didn't know why it hurt so bad, to have yelled in front of her. She knew, she had to know, that Zuko wouldn't consider her a friend. All she did was pester him while he worked. She studiously avoided looking at him when she aimed her smile at the boy and his uncle.

"Have a pleasant day," she wished, and walked away.

Once she was outside she took a breath, a long one, and stretched her arms above her head until both shoulders popped. The sun warmed her skin and she winked at Jet when she saw him spying on her. Had he seen what had happened? Or had he missed the raised voices?

She would ask him another day.

For right then she had a date that she now had time to prepare for.

* * *

"So that is what Avatar Kyoshi's army became," Wan Shi Tong didn't sound excited or disappointed, or even surprised. Interested, certainly, but Lien figured that the matters of mere mortals were of little true concern to him.

"Yes. I don't know what to make of it," she tucked her knees under her chin. She was sitting in an alcove she had founds years ago, one that rested above one of the levels of the book shelves and had a single, small window that allowed light in from the outside world.

And what a world it was. Purple grass stretched as far as she could see, up into green mountains and a red sky. Creatures that she had never dreamt of existing before ran across the fields and soared in the possibly sentient clouds. She liked the dragon birds.

"I understand why they exist, and I don't support monarchy's as a general rule of thumb, but more than that I can't stand people who rule by fear. And what he's doing now, it will only backfire. So have so many skilled warriors under the absolute command of one person it a terrible decision. I hate him."

"Would you kill him?" Wan Shi Tong asked, surprising her.

"Me?" she looked at him. Her, Lien, Harmony. Would she kill him? She feared him. She feared him just as-

Just as the Gansu had feared the Jiu Zhu, millennia before she was born.

 _We are Gansu, little one. Willing to eliminate. If it means the survival of our people,_ "We will do what it takes to survive. Heaven and Hell send aid to our enemies, for we will endure."

"Yes, humans are like that," Wan Shi Tong sounded almost disappointed in her. Lien pursed her lips before she finally shook her head.

"I would not kill him," she corrected. He gave her a look and Lien straightened. "Have I lied to you before?"

It wasn't that she wasn't willing to. Death was not the end, she knew that. But she didn't think that she could, and she was sure that if she did, it would do more harm than good in the long run.

She scratched her cheek, thinking.

"Come," Wan Shi Tong said abruptly. "I think I have something that will interest you."

Distracted now, she crawled out of the alcove, on top of a book case and jumped down to follow the great owl. Being in the spirit world was curious, in the sense that gravity wasn't quite like it was supposed to be but it still existed. Perhaps this was what it was like on the moon.

Wan Shi Tong lead her down, down, down into the depths of the library. She had thought she had explored most parts of it, but this was somewhere she was not at all familiar with. The walls were new, for one thing. Still expertly crafted but the stone it was carved out of had not been weathered yet and there was no sign of the years anywhere. All of the library was meticulously maintained but age showed no matter and it did not show here.

They stopped at an open doorway. Lien peered inside, curious. There was a table set up in the middle of the room with books laid on top, beside scrolls and leaves of blank papers. Lien walked forward, curious. Normally piles of books here were high and towering. These scant few were odd. On the walls were tombs that Lien had read already, in fact they were ones that she had kept coming back to for years and years afterwards. Now they lined the shelf, sorted by subject and author name.

"What is this?" she asked, touching a volume of poetry by Zhu Lee. The room wasn't sorted the way the rest of the library was. She couldn't figure out what was going on.

"This is your room," he said.

Lien paused, looked at him.

"Pardon?"

"This room is yours," he repeated, sweeping his wing towards the table. She went to inspect what he had put there. They were obscure firebending texts. Things she had never read before.

"I- Thanks you."

Her eyes started stinging. She turned and hid them in the owl's feathers while she hugged him. There was a long beat before she was totally enveloped in the feathered hug of a warm owl spirit.

* * *

Lien was pretty sure that Smellerbee was about the most sadistic girl she had ever met in her life. Her whole body ached and she had been holding positions for hours, twisting her limbs in ways that made her thank every god she could name for her flexibility.

"I can feel this in my _uterus_ ," she complained, struggling to keep her balance with her feet so awkwardly spaced and her legs bent in ways she swore they were not meant to.

The smaller girl snickered at her expense. Off to the side Jet made a sound of disgust and Longshot pulled his hat lower over his ears.

"You can stand up now," she offered, and Lien launched herself back into standing. She stumbled a little before she straightened out.

"Christ, I've never hurt so much in my life," she complained. Exaggerating and rolling her shoulder to try and get it to stop aching.

Longshot shot her a long look.

"Christ is like, a messiah who died in abrahamic texts," she explained, "It's a curse."

''In what texts?" Jet looked thoroughly confused.

"Abrahamic. It's a religion from the, west I think? I don't know where it would be from where we are. Hell, probably another dimension," she shrugged casually, and got an eye roll from the moody boy. He'd been marginally less obsessed with Zuko lately. He even took a break from his stalking last week to take a walk around the Lower Ring with the three of them while they tried to find a decent enough knife for Lien.

She had idly suggest she just made one out of glass, to which Smellerbee retorted that unless she wanted to be a very obvious assassin, it wasn't going to work.

"Anyways," Smellerbee interrupted them, probably for their own good, "I got you a stick," she declared, and pushed it into Lien's stomach.

The taller girl looked down at it. It was shiny, hard wood. It was less of a stick and more of a mini staff, with metal caps on both ends. A baton? There was a ring carved around it, about a third of the way up, with metal clamped there too, but the craftsmanship was rougher than it had been with the metal on the two ends.

Lien flipped it around in her hand a few times. She could use a knife, to hunt and skin animals, but fighting with one was not one of her forte's.

Smellerbee had her own stick, identical to Lien's.

"Hold it here, that'll be the hilt, and block when I swing at you," she instructed.

Lien nodded and settled onto the balls of her feet, waiting. Timing was everything, timing and predicting, patience and power. She watched.

Smellerbee's eyes moved before her hand and Lien had the mock up knife there to intercept when the smaller girl struck at her. She yelped in surprised when it was sent flying out of her hand. Cold metal touched her chest and Lien looked down at the end of Smellerbee's baton.

"Oh," she said. The smaller girl threw her a vicious smile.

"Didn't think I was that strong, did ya?" she taunted. Lien scratched her cheek and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Can we try again?" she asked. Smellerbee stepped back enough that Lien could grab her own baton. She flipped it around, playing with, before she got ready again. This time when Smellerbee struck she was able to block it.

This part wasn't that hard. She remembered playing swords with her cousin when they were little, before his mom died and he turned into an asshole. And it wasn't like Smellerbee was trying very hard. It was practice.

It occurred to her, rather belatedly, that she wasn't being shown any real stances or practice moves. Was that because Smellerbee didn't know any? Was she entirely self taught?

Lien's thoughts distracted her enough that the other girl smacked her fingers this time.

"Focus!" she scolded, "I'm not teaching you so you can day dream."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm a sage, not a soldier," she joked, and braced herself for another round.

Smellerbee came at her again, from different angles and different speeds. Lien had height as an advantage, but it didn't do much good when the other girl kept darting in and smacking her in the ribs.

It hurt. The lesson itself left her limping back home, bruised and sore, but it was worth it. She had to be ready for the day of Black Sun. She was involved now, there was no backing down anymore.


	16. Chapter 15: City of Conflict

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* * *

"Jet, I really don't think you're going to get anything out of this. Even if you do see them firebend, how can you prove that to the authorities? It would be your word against theirs, and two to one aren't good odds," she tried to reason with him, gesturing to the pair that were leaving work across the street.

Smellerbee and Long Shot were with them, standing at the edge of the roof. Jet had his things already packed and on his back. He levelled her with a distasteful glower.

"He's a firebender, I can't just let him go around with all these people! He's a danger to them!"

"Jet, if he was a danger, then shouldn't someone have been burned by now? It's been months!" she insisted.

Jet looked over her shoulder at his two Freedom Fighters.

"Do you two agree with her?" he demanded.

Smellerbee sighed and walked forwards, her hands up to try and pacify him.

"Please, we're worried about you," she tried, reaching for his arm. Jet jerked away from her, turned betrayed eyes on all of them. Lien felt a little bit bad, and even more irritated. Firebending wasn't evil, why wouldn't he understand?

"Fine!" he shouted. "I'll do this on my own!" he spun around and stormed away.

The three were left on the rooftop.

Lien hissed her breath out through her teeth. A flame escaped, lighting her face up in the dark of night.

She heard Smellerbee suck in a sharp breath and realized her mistake.

Her head snapped around towards them, tension drew her shoulders together. The girl took a step away from the pair.

"You're a firebender," the girl said simply. Lien saw Long Shot's fingers twitch and his arm jerk. Towards the bow on his shoulder.

"I am Gansu," she told them, "I am a daughter of the desert."

And then, she turned and jumped off of a building.

* * *

When she walked into Pao Family Tea House the next day she was surprised to see Zuko with a thin line on his cheek. Identical to her own, actually.

Lien frowned at him. "What happened to you?" she asked, leaning closer to see. He jerked back.

Pao, who had been passing, made a mournful sound.

"Oh, you should have seen it. My shop was a mess! Some crazy boy came in talking about firebenders! As if they would be here!" he laughed, high and nervous, and walked back to the back. She looked at Iroh, who met her eyes and sighed.

"Here," Lien swung her pack around and pulled out a tiny jar.

"What is it?" Zuko asked, narrowing his eyes at it.

"It's rosemary balm. It helps cuts and bruises," she explained. She scooped a small glob on her finger. "Please hold still," she requested, and reached for him. His head jerked back before he stilled and let her put it on the scratch. She kept the contact brief. Zuko was clearly uncomfortable.

When she went to sit down Iroh already had a tea ready for her. She smiled at him gratefully. She was still worked up from the night before.

"Thank you," she nodded to him and tucked her feet under the stool.

Iroh was watching her intently. "The most taut of strings snaps the most easily."

Lien sighed. "A cup of tea is good at chasing tension away."

"The ear of a friend, can be even better."

"Did you, just imply that something is better than tea?" she asked, a smile twitched onto her lips. Iroh looked horrified at the thought, and the passing Zuko stared at him like he'd lost his mind. Which was a fair possibility.

"Never!" he cried, clutching his tea cup like his life depended on it.

Lien laughed softly at him, her shoulders finally relaxing. It was okay. She knew where Jet went, and she knew that he return. She wasn't worried about him at all.

Not at all. Not even at that little tidbit about how he was supposed to die. Because if she existed then things changed and he might not die at all.

"I'll be alright," she promised, "I just got in a fight with a friend is all. I think, things will work out for the best this way," her brows furrowed. "And I alarmed a couple of other friends last night. I don't know that they'll stay my friends, actually…"

The Gaang, were they her friends? They had relaxed a little, but she still doubted they trusted her. And Zuko, he had outright refused that they were friends. Did Iroh count? Or was he just a kind old man?

Lien was struck with a horrible sense of solitude.

She was alone in Ba Sing Sei, with only allies of convenience around her. She had no family, no tribe. Nothing.

She stood abruptly, blinking back tears, and bowed thoughtlessly.

"Excuse me," she pleaded, and fled before Iroh could ask what was happening. For the second time in twelve hours she ran away.

A coward.

* * *

Lien spent the rest of the day in her studio. She bent fire and molded glass, pushing out work and losing herself in the beauty of construction.

She made her commissions first, of course, and then near duplicates for the displays that would belong in her shop window, which was also glass. The only one in the city to claim such luxury.

Then, she started something new. Something massive and delicate. One wrong move and she would ruin the whole thing. It was work that she began that day, with globes of color and crystal links, swirls and sharp edges, and soft turns. She spent hours pouring over it, delighting in every unique, unmatched form.

She would be lying if she said that the fact that no one in this world had ever seen anything like what she did wasn't something of an ego boost. It made her feel special, of all things.

She liked the attention, the adoration. There was a look that dawned on people's face when they saw something new, and Lien saw it on the faces of her customers. She loved it. She loved the deep breaths, the soft gasps, the careful, shaking hands that lifted her creations like they were as precious to them as they were to her.

Most of all, she loved the smiles.

Lien finished her work and set everything in the kiln, or on a shelf, or in a box filled with straw that would be taken to her store front in the morning. She cleaned after herself and drew the fire out of burning before she finally grabbed the short brown cloak she had bought some weeks before and spun it around her shoulders.

It hid herself, and the bag that she kept strapped across her shoulder and ribs still. She didn't trust the slippery hands of the children in this city.

She walked home, pausing as a dumpling stall that was open later than most. He was trying to sell the last of his stock, the dredges. He smiled when he saw her, and Lien nodded in return. Sometimes she bought the last of his days work, and pawned it off on Jet when she went to visit him on the night Zuko and Iroh closed the tea shop.

Tonight, she had to turn away from him.

The city was still awake around her, people and animals cluttering around, women hanging laundry in the windows and children running round in the last dying light fo the day as the sun sank low over the walls of Ba Sing Se.

She pulled her hood up, a wished for the desert. A cold wind blew, and she wished for her mother. A shadow flickered in the corner of her vision, and she wished for privacy.

"Hey," Sokka waved at her when she walked in the door, which she returned half heartedly.

"Hi," she said, and went to find Aang. She still had to teach him what she knew, after all. Not that he really needed it. Zuko would be a better teacher when he eventually joined the group. He'd actually had the training.

Aang was with Katara in the back yard, playing with water.

On impulse, Lien bent a bolt of fire at them, intending for it to go between the pair. They reacted better than she thought they would, and a wall of water lifted by both the avatar and his master rose up to stop the 'attack'.

Lien waved at them. "Are you guys finished?" she inquired, sliding her cloak back off and laying it on a rock beside her. The rock shifted, revealing Toph to be lying beneath it. Lien decided not to question that.

"No," Katara said curtly.

Aang looked between the two. "Actually, we were just finishing the last forms. Weren't we?" he looked to Katara to corroborate. The girl frowned deeply before she let the water relax back into a stream. Rich people had rivers in their backyards, apparently.

"Yeah," she agreed, "I guess so."

Katara confused Lien. Sometimes they seemed to be getting along just fine. Then Lien would do something, say something, or just walk the wrong way it seemed and Katara would get brisk and huffy again.

Lien tried to be understanding. But her patience was growing thin. Especially today.

"What's your problem with me?" she demanded, crossing her arms and staring Katara down.

The younger girl stiffened and drew herself up.

"What are you talking about? I don't have a problem with you," she declared, setting her jaw.

Lien narrowed her eyes. "You suck at lying."

"I'm not lying!" she shouted this time. Took a step forwards.

Liens hands dropped to her sides and she flexed her fingers.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Aang jumped between them, holding a hand between them both. "Let's not fight! We're all friends here, right?" he beseached them, but it only fanned the embers that had been in Lien's heart all day.

Her eyes stung and she bared her teeth at them, feral and hurt.

"No," she snapped, "We aren't."

Aang looked like she'd slapped him and a tiny, tiny sliver of regret laced into her heart.

"Friends don't act this way, nice one day and then distant and pissy the next!" She took a step forwards. The grass under her feet turned to ash. "You don't get to do that, do you understand? I left everything to help you, and I'm not here to be treated like some rabid dog you're waiting to bite you! You need to figure your shit out, Katara, because I'm done dealing with it!"

"My sh- what!?" Katara took a step towards her, forcing Aang to move backwards to keep his place between them. "What about you? You leave all day, doing whatever you want to do, going who knows where, instead of training Aang like you were supposed to! You shouldn't even be teaching him, you can barely control your bending! You kill everything around you, just like the rest of the Fire Nation does!" She practically screamed in her face. By now Aang had a hand on both of their stomachs, and was squished between them.

Lien hadn't moved an inch. She looked Katara dead in the eyes.

"I didn't kill your mother."

The next thing she knew was cold, and pain.

It took her a full ten seconds before her brain comprehended what she had been hit by. Katara had waterbended her, using a wave of icy water to slam her into the wall that separated the avatar from their neighbors. The rock bit intoh er shoulder and Lien's head tried to spin.

The water retreated and she shoved herself off the wall, launching herself to the side. Her vision blurred before she managed to stand up and take a breath. Without the heat of the sun she was weakened. Katara, on the other hand, had a full moon to give her power and strength.

It was hardly a fair fight.

Luckily, Lien had never fought fair. She was Gansu.

She lashed out a kick, sending a wave of fire arcing towards Katara. It was blocked with the greatest of ease, but the extra heat she had used in it hit the water and it exploded into steam. Katara killed that soon, but in the brief cover it allowed her Lien had already launched herself in the air and rained fire from the sky, pouring it down in a veritable waterfall. Fire fall.

Katara threw her arms up, and with them came a dome.

Lien twisted in the air, spinning fire around her a wheel that spun around Katara's dome, landing on all sides. The water sizzled when it hit, and the distraction worked. The water washed out, covering the fire, and leaving a weak point in the top.

Lien barely touched the center of the roof. Her palm sat flat upon it, and she focused. Fire ignited beneath her, inside of the water barrier.

Katara shouted, and the water stabbed up into ice spikes. They cut through Lien's clothes and her skin, blood mingled with the water, staining it red as she fell from the sky.

She landed right next to Katara, on her hands, and spun herself in a break dancing way to drive her foot, not fire, into the waterbenders ribs. Something cracked and gave way, and Katara stumbled, gasping.

Lien flipped to her feet, only for her legs, bloods and gashed, to give out beneath her. She sunk to her knees, breathing hard. Fire puffed in front of her lips. There was a very noticeable hole in her biceps. And her stomach.

"Huh," she said, idly. "I've been impaled."

A glance at Katara revealed that she had fared better. Far better. There was a rather nasty burn on her right arm, her hair was singed and her cheek was red and already starting to try and blister. She was gripping her probably broken ribs.

Lien waved her hand, drawing the heat out of the burns, and the red of the smallest went with it. There was nothing worse than a second degree burn on her, despite how close it had ignited. Lien hadn't been trying to kill her, of course. She had just lost it.

She was tired of the attitude, and now she was just exhausted. Lien yawned, her jaw popping, a second before it was snapped shut.

Blood filled her mouth, matching the stuff on the ground, and she heard something screaming at Katara over the newfound ringing in her ears. She fell against the ground, tasting copper.

Who knew Katara would take such a cheap shot.


	17. Chapter 16: What Never Was Part 1

**Oh wow. I didn't expect so many people to get so mad at Katara! I just figured that a fight was the natural conclusion to their tension.**

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 **Eclipse130: Oh no its fine, rant as much as you like! I honestly do like Katara, she was always one of my favorite characters, when I was a kid and now too, but she isn't a saint, she really is a complex hot head, and I do my best to show that here. Since no one's been telling me that I'm crazy or that she's way out of character, I'll just take that to mean that I've got a decent grasp on that ^^'**

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 **What is and never was.**

* * *

Shuya pet her hair, singing softly in the flickering light of the fire. It was too high for the sticks inside of it, a fault of Lien's. Her control was not spot on, and her emotions were as high as the fire was rising.

" _Fear not the dark, for the winds will guide you, fear not the cold, you will be safe and warm. Trust in my love and my hands will bring you, once more into my waiting arms."_

It was a small comfort to her. Lien closed her eyes against the hurt. Shuya had only been her mother for eight years, but she loved her as dearly as she had loved Adam. To be sent away from her new home, it hurt. Her adult mind may understand but her young heart broke to pieces with the knowledge.

Shuya shifted, setting her daughter in her lap and pulling out a long parchment of paper. Of map of desert. She pointed to the Misty Palms, where Lien had been only once before. Her people were constantly on the move, from one outpost to the other.

"There is a caravan that will be travelling through here in a few days. They will buy supplies at the Palms. When we get there, we will pay for you to be taken to Shenzhen. It's a Fire Nation town, with a port. A woman named Suisen will fetch you from there," as she spoke, Shuya traced out the paths on the map, unfurling a new on so she could see the rest of the earth kingdom as well.

Lien didn't like the way that she was talking.

"You make it sound like you won't be there for it," she grumbled. A soft sigh from above heightened her nerves.

"I won't. We only have enough money to book passage for one, my Lotus. This is a journey you must make on your own."

"But I'm not old enough," she argued quickly. Her hand latched onto the front of Shuya's dusty tunic. "I haven't even faced the desert on my own yet! How will I face the world?"

Shuya hushed her, taking her small hand into her own.

"This will be your Crucible. Your test. You will go to your father, and he will teach you to burn as brightly as he does. You will find your place, if not in the Fire Nation then with us, when you are older and a master."

"What if I can't do it?" she challenged, staring up with tears in her eyes.

"Then try. Try and you will never fail, even if you die. Giving up-"

"Is worth than death," Lien finished.

Shuya smiled at her. She reached into the folds of her clothes and pulled out a necklace that she dropped over her daughter's head. Lien picked it up, looking down curiously. It was her tribe's name, in a dark sand set upon white grains. On the back, engraved, it read 'strength through endurance'.

"You are Gansu, Lien, no matter how far you go. You will endure, you will survive, and heaven and hell send aid to your enemies," she recited the words that Lien had heard all of this life, and kissed her daughter's head before she rolled the maps back up and pulled her once more into a hug.

The crackling fire died down as she curled further into her mother's side, falling into the comfort of the hand in her hair and the warmth of her mother's arms.

It would all be gone tomorrow.

* * *

The caravan stood before her, swarming like a hill of fire ants. It was pulled by ostrich horses, marking it foreign from the desert if the people upon it did not. They wore soft green clothes, so different from the coarse beige that Lien was accustomed to. There weren't any other children that Lien could see. She would be alone, even more so than she first figured.

"Lien?" Shuya touched her shoulder, perhaps for the last time.

The little girl, who was not so little, stepped away from her with a deep breath.

"Time and Tide wait for no man," she declared. She didn't look back at Shuya, for she feared that if she did she would not be able to take the rest of the steps in her journey. She had moved on from her Adam, it was time to move on from Shuya.

The hand fell away from her shoulder and the girl felt her lip start to quiver.

"I will see you again," Shuya told her back.

Lien could but nod, and wait for the sound of her footsteps to leave.

* * *

Kiyi was a kind woman. She was an old nursemaid that travelled with Hiresh, the leader of the caravan and one of the three earthbenders who walked with them. Besides him there was his brother, Ilesh, and his sister, Ela.

That made four benders total to quite the conglomeration of non benders. Not that anyone knew what Lien was. She was under no delusions as to what might become of her if they found out what she was. It had only taken a little asking around to determine where she was. Not quite one hundred years into the war.

She had letter tucked against her stomach to show when she finally made her way to her father's country. Proof of who she said she was, that was hopefully sufficient. If it wasn't, she didn't know what she would do.

Lien sat at the edge of the firelight, playing with the necklace she had been given and going over her words in her mind. _Heaven and hell send aid to my enemies._

But who, exactly, were her enemies? The Fire Nation? Zuko wasn't her enemy. And the country had never done anything directly to her or her family, or her tribe. The Earth Kingdom? Certainly not, but they had never done anything for her tribe either. They labelled the people of the sand thieves and bandits, unworthy of trust, and when a drought arrived the only help they could rely on was from each other. Neither government gave a damn about the desert, or her sons and daughters.

So who was her enemy?

Who did her mother think she would be facing?

Lien crossed her arms over her knees and propped her chin on top of them.

She didn't know that she liked the uncertainty of it all.

But, she couldn't do anything to change this, so he closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Only to wake up hours later to the feeling of something being very, very, wrong.

The little girl sat up. She could feel them. Feel the heat of their heart in their chest as they approached the caravan, quickly, under the cover of midnight. She didn't know where this new sense had come from.

It gave her just enough time to scream bloody murder before the first arrow fell, and then she wasn't the only on screaming.

Bandits fell upon them with bows and swords and spears. Lien shoved Kiyi into the trees. Ela and her brothers lifted the earth to help them, throwing rocks and making walls, doing their best to fight off the attackers. Beneath their feet, the earth ran red.

Lien and Kiyi ran into the trees with some of the others, but most of their caravan had hunkered down behind the walls of the earthbenders.

Lien swallowed thickly when she saw Ilesh fall with a spear embedded in his skull. She focused, not on the dead man, but on the long cloaks the bandits wore. They were tattered and worn, and unlike her they weren't covered in sand. Sand didn't catch fire. But cloth, dry cloth, did.

She took a breath, and imagine smoke rising from the cloaks. Imagined the temperature rising. Imagined their clothes igniting.

The explosion rocked the earth, and send bodies flying all over the place. Kiyi screamed, giving away their position, and arrows came flying towards them. Lien grabbed her hand and pulled her into the darkness, running, running.

She didn't trip, but Kiyi did, falling upon her and squishing the girl beneath her body.

"Hey!" she hissed, pushing at the woman's shoulder. "Get off, we gotta run!"

But Kiyi didn't move, or say anything. The back of Lien's shirt got wet before she realized what had happened. Kiyi had died.

Lien choked on her horror. Her hands shook when she pushed the woman off of her back. She couldn't bring herself to look at her face when she pulled herself away from the corpse. Lien knew she couldn't afford to stop, so she ran off, into the night.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry. She wanted her mother. But none of that was possible.

 _I am Gansu,_ she told herself, _and I will endure._

The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching sent her heart into overdrive. She could feel it again, the heat of their bodies coming closer.

The trees broke apart and she almost plummeted off the edge of a cliff, the rocks clattering down into the valley when she scrambled to a stop. It was so close in the dark she hadn't seen it. And if she hadn't seen it…

Lien gripped the tree with all her strength, staring hard into the dark. It didn't do her a lot of good, and she found herself relying on this strange new sense to tell where the bandits were. They flew towards her hiding place, and then right past. And, promptly, down into the gully. The heat inside of them went out. Just like it had gone out in Kiyi.

There were more coming after their screams.

Most of them went off the cliff too, but some realized her trick and stopped. They were holding torches, burning through the darkness. She could see their faces in the night.

Lien took a breath and reached for the fire. It swelled, slightly, when she caught onto its energy with her own. She took one hand away from the bark and swept it out in front of her. The torch fire grew and flew off the wood, straight into the face of the torch bearer. Under her guidance it spread onto the screaming men. And, from there, onto the trees.

Lien jumped down and took off into the dark, fire on her heels. Shit.

In the darkness, the forest burned. And, so too did her enemies.

* * *

Zhi was a pretty woman. She was small in her old age, and hunched over a cane, but even the wrinkles of age and the silver in her hair couldn't hide that she had been born beautiful. All of that was marred by the frightful frown that dragged her mouth downwards and hardened what could have been laugh lines into something gruesome.

She was flanked by her daughter and Grandsons. Liu was much like her mother, but smaller and younger. Her hair, like that of her son, was black. It was swept smoothly into a topknot, and Lien felt out of place with her own wild waves hovering around her ears. It may have been black as coal, and her eyes mave have glowed amber, but she was too tall to be a Fire Nation child, her skin was a few shades too dark for her to be of the archipelago.

She wondered how Shuya would measure up to Zhao, or his smaller brother Zhang. She was certain that she towered above the both of them. Had she been that much taller when she first met Zhao?

Zhi looked over the letter, her old hands carefully avoiding the blood stained bits of it. Kiyi's blood. Then, she looked at Lien, no kindness at all in her eyes.

The little girl looked up at her grandmother, defiant.

Finally, the woman folded the letter and handed it to her daughter, who likewise refused to touch the red stains.

"So Zhao has a bastard," it was said perfectly bluntly. Lien was surprised. Her apparent father looked at Zhi.

"Very well," she continued. "You will learn to be a proper Lady of the Fire Nation. You won't amount to much, but you will not bring shame upon us by being some rapscallion or a desert rat."

Lien stiffened at the insult to her people. Her lip curled in distaste. She already didn't like Zhi.

"Hui, take her to get cleaned up," she ordered, and swept away into the sprawling house behind her, floating up the steps like she wasn't at least eighty.

Hui, who was Lien's grandmother but hardly looked it, turned to follow her mother without a word.

Lien looked at Zhao, and said the first thing in her lifetime to her father.

"Well, shit."

* * *

It didn't take much time at all for Lien to determine that she really, really did not like Zhi. And from Zhi it was easy to see where Zhao came from. She was proud, brutal, and didn't care about anyone or anything that didn't bring glory to their family.

In fact, she hated deeply her son-in-law for disgracing their family name. Something that she loved to remind her grandsons, and her great granddaughter, of.

She was strict, and controlled the household with an iron fist. She decided when they ate, when they slept. She decided when Lien practiced her calligraphy, when she practiced singing and when she got any free time at all. She controlled when Lien was permitted to practice her firebending.

She didn't have a firebending school to go to, she didn't need one. She had her father and her uncle to teach her. Which was… well, her arms were burnt more times than not, and she was thankful for the long sleeves that could cover the scars that were amounting.

At night she dreamed of the desert and the city. During the day she dreamed of being rid of Zhi.

The first opportunity she was given, she got away from her great grandmother. And into the Royal Fire Academy for Girls.

It totally slipped her mind who else was there.

* * *

It was, honestly, a lot easier to avoid Azula than one would think. Given that Lien was just a bastard three years her senior, there was no reason for Azula to give a damn who she was, and there was no opportunity for her to interact in classes. The only time they ever saw each other was when they were partnered in the firebending lessons that were available.

Which was mostly Azula showing off and the rest of them going through the proper forms. Lien didn't care much for them, and she found herself slipping, more often than not, into forms that her mother had shown her years ago. Her teachers weren't exactly fond of that.

They also didn't like the neverending doodles and drawing that filled up her papers instead of her work.

Years passed like that, until she was thirteen and went to join her father's battle ship.

She didn't actually join the Navy, but somehow she ended up being promoted to Lieutenant. It was weird.

* * *

"Well this is unexpected."

She knew that one of them would recognize her voice, but whether Aang could tell who it was speaking through the cloth and ceramic she couldn't say.

The Blue Spirit looked at her, pointed a sword and put himself between her and the Avatar. Lien dropped the bodies of the guards she had dispatched. Zuko had poor timing. He had come in just in time for their changing.

"Who are you?" Aang asked, peeking at her from over Zuko's shoulder.

She rolled her head around her shoulders. Though they couldn't see it a smile played upon her lips. She had been planning this for years, debating whether to do it and then figuring out how to do it.

"Harmony," she said. It was the first time in seventeen years she had said the name aloud, and now it sounded foreign on her tongue.

"Are you friends with him?" Aang made comical gestures around his savior's head.

"Who, the Blue Spirit? We've never met. I'm here to get you out, before you get shipped to the Fire Nation. Also, we should go. They do patrols every twenty minutes, ten for this wing now that you're here. "

"Why are you two helping me?" Aang asked, but he and the Blue Spirit followed her. Lien was grateful. They didn't have time to wait.

"Because, I don't want Zhao to capture you," she said, shrugging. "You may be the avatar, but the life that he has waiting for you, isn't someone I would wish on anyone at all. Chained up for the rest of your left, kept too weak to fight but not allowed to die…"

Lien shook her head.

"If I can stop it, I will."

She stopped at a dead end. The Blue Spirit turned towards her, pointing his sword at her. Lien lifted her hands.

"Hey, hey, I know what I'm doing," she scolded. When he didn't move to stab her the girl moved to the wall and pushed down on a metal plate smaller than the others. Since she and Zhao had arrived here a month ago she had been exploring, memorizing, and hunting down every route in and out. That was how she'd found this.

The wall slid open, revealing a passageway within.

The trio slipped inside, and Lien closed the door behind them. She grabbed the torch she'd left there a few nights ago and lit it, using it to guide their way. There were still cobwebs and dust, but she had cleared out the poisonous spiders already, with a liberal use of fire.

They were emptied out right into the forest.

Lien stopped at the door, and gesturing into the darkness.

"Go ahead."

Aang looked at her. "You aren't coming with us?"

Lien shook her head. "I would like to, but I don't think that I can. I'll see you again though."

"Promise?" Aang asked, looking up at her. Under her mask, Lien smiled.

"You're welcome," she said instead of something that might make sense. She stepped backwards and closed the passage behind her, sealing off Aang and Zuko. What happened now was up to them.


	18. Chapter 17: What Never Was Part 2

**I only have a few minutes to post this so I'm going to have to forego the reviews this chapter, sorry guys. IMPORTANT NOTE is that that amazing and talented chobits15 and Gerbilfriend actually DREW MY CHARACTERS. DREW THEM. Guys do you know how amazing that is? checkout loveangel15 on deviantart and Gerbilfriend also on deviantart! FF doesn't let me put up links or I would have already, this is amazing.**

* * *

That was not the last time that Lien arranged for the Avatar to slip through Zhao's fingers. There was a trap that she led him out of, and a small 'mishap' in the engine room when they got a little too close to the flying bison another time.

This time, was probably the most memorable though. Because this time she ended up doing something very stupid.

After the incident at the fire festival she left her father, for once foregoing her Harmony costume and the mask that she had in the ship, running off at her father's behest. And, at her own desires.

She rather liked the forests in the Earth Kingdom, but they would never compare to the dune of her desert. The air the blew threw the trees would never be anything compared to the dry breeze that whipped across the sands. Perhaps, after she was done making mischief she would go back to her mother, like she had planned.

The necklace still hung from her neck.

Lien slipped into the camp with a little too much ease, relying on the sense she had unlocked all those years ago. The Fire Within, her Zhao called it. He wasn't nearly as good at using it as his daughter. No one seemed to be. She wondered why.

Lien skipped down the stone steps, towards the tent that sat alone. She could feel two people, and a lot of candles inside of it. No doubt Aang and Jeong Jeon.

Katara was out on the water, and Lien waved cheerfully at her when the girl saw her. For some reason, Katara didn't run over yelling. Maybe because she was dressed in civilian clothes instead of a uniform.

"-fire, will spread and destroy everything in your path."

Lien pushed the tent open, looking in at the Avatar and the old man.

"What nonsense are you trying to teach him, huh, Grandfather?"

There was dead silence.

Both old man and 112 year old boy looked up at her. Lien propper a hand on her hip, her fingerless gloves resting on the multilayered, pentagonal flaps on her skirt. She smiled, tilting her head until the part of her long hair that wasn't in a top knot fell across her shoulder.

It was only there for a second before a wall of wind smacked into her, sending her hair flying back. She managed to stay grounded, her feet planted firmly. It helped that she'd been expecting that.

"Well now. That was rude," she said idly.

Aang launched himself from the ground and took on an airbending stance. Jeong Jeong rose into one for fire.

Lien just played with the thick metal band on her wrist, over the gloves that went almost all the way up her arms. She was utterly blase, more intent on the ruby's on her bracelet than the potential fight in front of her.

"My father is on his way here," she told them. "From the river. You should probably run. And find a better teacher."

"Your father was a poor student," Jeong Jeong countered, advancing towards her a step. Lien held her ground, glancing at him, then back at Aang.

"Probably true, but he's not afraid of fire. The more you're afraid of it, the less control you have. Kill you fear and master the Flames of Life."

"The Flames of Life?" Aang repeated, his brows pinching together. Jeong Jeong dismissed her with a sound.

"A nonsensical myth."

Lien rolled her eyes and supplied, "Supposedly fire is what breathed life into the first humans, a gift from the dragons of old. Those who had the most fire were blessed by the dragons, and descendants of the first humans, the Order of the Sun, I think they were called."

Lien totally hadn't learned all this sneaking around the Dragon Bone Catacombs. Nope.

"The Flames of Life is the fire inside of you, and all living beings. Some firebenders can feel it in others. Most people call is chi."

Aangs eyes lit up. "I've heard of that!"

Lien flashed a smile. "I would hope so!"

"Enough!" Jeong Jeong snapped. "If you are here, your father is not far off."

"That's true enough," Lien confirmed. "You've got about a day and a half." She paused, looking at Aang. "I can only do so much, since I'm not actually willing to risk my safety to help you, but if you need a hand firebending, I'm sure we'll hunt you down again."

Aang was startled. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," she shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do."

"What about, hunting us down?" Aang cocked his head.

"Eh. That's mostly a hobby. I'm hoping if anyone catches you it's Prince Zuko, but if you end up taking down his father that would be pretty badass."

"You want the Fire Nation to lose the war?" Aang asked, surprised.

Lien's smile turned nasty. "I would love nothing more." Seeing the look on Aang's face, Lien let her expression soften. "My mother is Earth Kingdom. From the Si Wong desert," she explained, waving her hand idly.

Both of them were surprised.

"Your dad married an Earth Kingdom woman?" Aang's voice got higher. Lien couldn't help it, she laughed.

"Oh, god no! I'm a bastard!"

In another world, she would have been Harmony Sand. Or something. She was certainly grateful she had never been born in Westeros, or Alternia, or some other horrible, bloody place. Her country may have been ravaged by war, but it was still tame compared to what it could have been.

Lien looked at Aang, her head tilted. She reached up, taking her necklace off and offered it the young monk. It was the first time she had given it up in a decade or more. Aang took it, looking down in confusion.

" 'Strength through endurance'?" he read aloud.

"The words of the desert. If you ever end up in the Si Wong, show that to any of the sandbending tribes. They'll show you to my mother."

"Why are you giving me this?" Aang asked, putting the necklace over his bald head.

"You might need it later on."

"And, I need to go," she added. "Don't put too much stock in my grandad," she nodded to Jeong Jeong, then Aang, and ducked out of the tent again.

* * *

It was freezing.

Lien glared sullenly at the wall of the ship, her knees drawn tight to her chest. Since she'd been to the Fire Nation she had taken to wearing a top that left her belly exposed and a lot of gold jewelry. Now, if she had jewelry on it would bite into her skin, turning it black with frost, and she was wrapped up entirely in red and black furs. It still wasn't enough.

So far north she felt sick whenever it wasn't noon, nausea haunted her every waking moment and she was _weak_. Her fire flickered and ate up so much of her energy she dared not use it to keep warm.

Never before had she had such sympathy for Zuko. He had gone after Aang in these conditions, weakened the way she was and hurt from an explosion, swam in frigid water, and still managed to fight off a soon-to-be Master Waterbender. Lien didn't' think she had ever had that much determination for anything.

Even her artwork, precious to her, she hadn't fought for it the way Zuko fought for his throne. She learned to be sneaky, to hide her drawings and her little bits of glass away from the world, where no one would see.

Now, she huddled in the dark, the only right light coming from the softly reddened tip of a long piece of metal she kept poking around the furnace. The coals were burning down slowly. The fighting had ended for the day, the waterbenders retreating behind the high ice walls and the firebenders halting their advance.

Lien felt like she was forgetting something, but she was so cold she couldn't focus on anything other than the stinging pain in her fingers and the lack of anything in her toes. When could she go back to the desert? Or even the volcanic islands?

All she wanted was to go somewhere she could feel the sun on her skin and the sand between her toes.

Lien closed her eyes, leaning back on the wall and sighed in longing. Around her, the ship groaned. Once, she had twitched at every sound the glorified tin can made. Now, after years stuck in it, she stopped paying attention.

Far off, she heard someone scream. Her eyes flickered open, in time to see the metal above her head twist around. THere was a flash of the sky, stars sparkling far in the distance before something else overtook it. Glowing, bright, bright blue. Water rushed in, smashing into her face.

Lien choked, her head smashing back against the wall and her vision swam. Unfortunately, she did not.

The ship twisted around her, metal shrieking and water flooding in. She couldn't even scream. Water filled her lungs and metal shot forwards, stabbing through her abdomen.

" _Huh. I've been impaled."_

Golden eyes flashed open and Lien sucked in a harsh breath, sucking in air so face she swallowed it. The girl fell into a coughing fit, turning over on her side to vomit water onto the floor. Her arms shook, barely holding her up.

"Lien!" Sokka appeared at her side, slipping an arm around her to keep from falling into her own mess.

Her head spun. She looked at him, squinting. Her stomach hurt terribly and there was spots of black and red on the floor now.

"Where- Where am I? When did I get off the boat?"

Sokka stared at her. "What boat?"

"The boat… I was on a boat. At the North Pole. It was cold."

Sokka's brows furrowed. "No, you weren't. You in the backyard. Maybe you need to sleep more…"

Lien nodded, slowly. She coudln't tell if she was too exhausted to feel tired or so terrified of being run through with more metal that thought of sleep was appealing. She was also totally confused, but Sokka was her friend.

Right?

He lowered her back to the mat on the floor while her mind wandered.

As soon as her head touched down, she was out again.


	19. City of Isolation

**So! Idk if I already named it in the story or not, and right now I can't find it if I did but from now on Lien's shop is called** _ **Glass Menagerie**_ **and that will probably change again before the stoy is over and done with. ALSO I didn't plan on having the Ba Sing Se arc last this long at all! By now they were supposed to be well on their way elsewhere, so… yeah. Whoops? Tbh my stories really tend to get away from me, and this one is no exception.**

 **Great i dea: Thanks!**

 **Innieminnie: Sorta? More like psychic vision of another timeline.**

 **DannyPhantom619: An excellent thing to ponder! That answer is, very!**

 **Loser94: You're welcome! I really wasn't trying to make anyone hate Katara! I _like_ Katara. Their conflict just seemed like it needed to come to a peak and that was natural, for me? **

**notsofrilly: eeeyup**

 **AUareAwesome: I'll do my best!**

 **Anonymous Legacy: Very true, but it's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, 'cause everything is never as it seems~**

 **Wicked Neko: Everyone hates Katara now I feel so bad! I mean yes, but I wasn't going for that ^^' trauma is... unfortunate.**

 **Gerbilfriend: Yes! I wanna write more about that timeline, but I figured I wasted enough of everyone's time with those scenes ^^'**

 **akagami hime chan: Sorry! Yeah, I'll try to be more explicit if I pull something like that again!**

 **AnimaQueen: ... is this quick enough?**

 **swordworks: Just visions from another life!**

 **ultima-owner: a question of perception, is it?**

 **Guest from March 1st: Thanks!**

 **Lightsbane1905: Why thank you! I do try ^^**

 **Angelicsailer: Sorry!**

 **Espied7: Here you go!**

 **Guest from March 1st: Yes! I had a lot of fun with that one! That version of Lien was definitely more chill than actual Lien. Less stress maybe?**

 **tylermech66: _that's the frozen reference i made oh my fricking god_. That would also be really cool! Two old masters, speaking of their gift/curse so differently. Because of one young upstart who uses it for _art._**

 **Guest from March 2nd: I love spiderman, seriously**

 **faerybound: They're all such complex character and they all have so many _issues._ that's why it takes these chapters so long to come out, tbh. **

**Berghoult Stuttly Johnson: Thank you!**

 **The-Weird-Muggleborn-Girl: Seriously! Talk about surreal! I do agree, Katara has so much more of a temper than anyone else on the team though, like I was rewatching the series while writing this and she is... not always good. I love her, but she really is multifacetted and not all of those facets are pretty.**

 **Guest from March 22nd: The second one.**

 **mouse: she's having a vision of an alternate timeline**

 **Xlerons: Thanks!**

 **Dein0kos: correct!**

* * *

In the days the followed after Lien's awakening from the coma she spent most of her time sleeping. Well, pretending to at any rate.

She didn't have the energy just yet to deal with all the shit that had happened. Between Katara's attempted murder and the ensuing, bewildering dreams she had so much emotional and mental baggage to work through it was a miracle she hadn't lost her mind yet.

Lien finally understood how Zuko could get a fever that lasted for days from all of his emotional conflict.

Part of her wondered if it wasn't a firebender thing. They were already so full of volatile energy, it wasn't a stretch to say that that could affect their physical health.

It did not explain what the hell she had seen while she was dreaming.

Lien tried to focus on what happened and whenever she did something else came to her.

 _Everyone that had served under Zhao for more than a month knew better than to watch him 'train' his daughter. His training was strict, brutal, and as hot as his temper._

 _Somedays the only thing that kept Lien from jumping ship and swimming for it was the heavy weight around her neck and the knowledge that he would get what was coming to him._

' _Strength through Endurance'._

"I am Gansu," she told herself, "I am of the Si Wong."

And she was done hiding under sheets.

Whatever she had seen, another lifetime or just a fever dream, it didn't matter. What mattered was that she was in a house with a girl that had almost been the death of her and Lien had had quite enough of that, thank you.

So, in the dark of the morning she picked herself out of the matt on the floor, grabbed her pack and went to walk out the door. She stumbled over a rock that had not been in the doorway before.

Her stomach was mostly fine now, no doubt thanks to Katara, but it still twinged painfully when she moved too fast. Like when she caught herself on the way to the ground.

"Fuck me sideways," she told the earth.

Toph snorted from where she was sitting on an elevated piece of land beside the doorway. Lien was only a little bit surprised that she was there. Sokka and Aang were still sawing logs in the other room, and Katara she still hadn't seen.

"You were pretending to be asleep for a long time. Twinkle Toes was worried about you," she said.

Lien shrugged, unapologetic. "I had some things I needed to think of."

"So your gonna leave then?" Toph didn't look to be upset but Lien could hear something in her voice. A note of fear.

"I'm sure not staying here."

"Yeah, can't say a blame you," Toph said. She stuffed a finger in her ear. Lien twitched at it but said nothing. "Still, Twinkle Toes does need a teacher."

"Then he'll have to find one with more classical training," she retorted. "I'm getting out of here."

"You must really be mad at Katara."

Lien contemplated that.

"I am. But, not for the fight. I've had time to think about it, and I shouldn't have brought up her mom. That was taking it too far. Everything else though, that's true. I'm tired of the others flip flopping between whether they trust me or not. So it's not just Katara. I… I'm going back to my shop. If you need me, you can find me there," she reached over to lay her hand on Toph's shoulder.

"Take care of yourself," she said, and turned to walk in to the night.

* * *

Someone was inside of her shop.

Lien knew that the second she put the key into the lock. She could feel the heat of their life through the walls. Two of them, they had lit the hearth and were sitting close to it.

If they were comfortable enough to start a fire then they probably weren't going to kill her.

Probably.

Lien turned the key and eased the door open slowly. She poked her head, looking around until she caught sight of a tall person and a small person, one of which had ild hair unbound.

"Longshot, Smeller Bee," she stepped in fully and shut the door behind her with a soft click. "What are you guys doing in here? I thought you had your own apartment across town."

"Lien!" Smeller Bee turned to face her. Lien was stunned to see redness around her eyes. Had she been crying? Lien didn't even know she was able to do that. She was always so tough, so willing to throw her to the ground and tell her what had gone wrong or fight tooth and nail alongside her friends.

The elder girl moved forwards to touch her shoulder.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" she quickly turned them around, back towards the dying fire. She waved her hand, making it grow enough to warm the entire room. To his credit Longshot only twitched away from it a little.

"It's Jet," Smeller Bee said, "He disappeared. After you left he got in a fight with that Lee guy. The Dai Lee took him away and we haven't seen him sense!"

"Oh."

That had been days ago. Almost a week. And in that whole week Jet had been gone, which meant he was somewhere under Lake Laogai, or maybe already wandering around looking for Katara. Damn.

"Oh? Is that all you can say?!"

Longshot put a hand on her arm. Smeller Bee, who had looked ready to start frothing at the mouth, let her shoulders dropped in defeat.

"Sorry. I'm just worried about him. Where have you been?"

"Me?" Lien rubbed the scar on her cheek. "I got in a fight. I've been comatose since the day after I last saw you."

Smeller Bee went from mildly upset to horrified in a second. Even Longshot paled.

"Seriously? Who'd you fight? Where are they? Are you still hurt?"

"I'm fine. Or, I will be. I'm still sore but that's it. I was fighting a friend. Or, not a friend. I travelled to Ba Sing Se with her, but now we've split up," Lien was too out of it to be eloquent or poetic. "Jet will turn up, I promise."

"You can't know that," she frowned up at Lien.

"I can. Jet's eyes… he's a survivor, isn't he? He probably just talked back to much and they kept him a couple of days longer," she lied through her teeth casually.

Longshot nodded from his place by the fire.

Smeller Bee sighed. "Yeah, you're right," she agreed finally.

"Of course I am. Now, why don't we go get something to eat? I'm famished," Lien threw her an admittedly weak smile.

She could tell it was going to be a long day.

* * *

Lien was wrong.

It was going to be a long _week_.

As soon as the sun was up the day after she got to her shop Lien found herself being abandoned by her two friends while they went off once more to look for Jet. With her employees finally relieved of their duties Lien was left alone in her store front.

It was a quiet day, with no one around to buy much of anything.

So Lien was left to her thoughts.

A smile played across her lips. Even though she had broken off from Katara and the others…

Longshot and Smeller Bee had come to see her. Even knowing what she was, even knowing she was one of the people that they had fought so hard again in the past, they hadn't shied away from her. They had even set up their own base in a place they knew she would be.

It warmed her to know that she still had friends.

* * *

They were walking around town a few days later, gathering groceries for dinner. The three of them were officially living in her store front. It wasn't that hard when one of them could cook dinner in their hands and the other two were used to living like wild children in the woods.

Lien had been looking at dirt cheap apartments, since they were no longer allowed back in their own. She decided she didn't want to ask.

Lien had been telling Longshot about how she got colors into the glass when Smeller Bee dropped her squash and bolted.

"Geez, if I was that boring she should have said something."

Longshot shook his head at her and they took off at a run after the smaller girl. It was easier said that done, Bee was swift and nimble, she moved faster than anyone that Lien had ever met in this life or the last. She would have been a damn good free runner if they were still in New York.

She and Longshot skidded around a corner, managing not to tumble into each other when they rounded it and found Bee hugging Jet for all she was worth. Standing next to him was the one and only Katara.

Lien felt her face twitch into something bland and indecipherable. Her plan had been to just never see Katara again and she wouldn't have to deal with the image of bright blue eyes storming with fury or the sight of red slowly seeping across an icicle that stuck in her stomach.

She _was_ going to violently suppress those memories. Now, she didn't have much of a choice.

"I thought you didn't have your gang anymore," Katara turned accusing eyes on him.

Jet looked down at the girl in his arms, bewilderment clear on his face. "I don't."

"How'd you get away from the Dai Li?" Smeller Bee asked, finally pulling away to look up at the leader.

Katara swung to face him. "The Dai Li?!"

"I don't know what she's talking about!" Jet gestured wildly towards Smellerbee, panic starting to set into his face. Lien had kept mostly behind Longshot for the time being. Her hands were shaking.

"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple of weeks ago. We saw them drag him away!"

"Why would I be arrested? I've been living peacefully in the city!" If only he knew the trouble he caused. Lien looked up at Longshot, who made a face and turned back to the pair of them. Toph got between the two of them and lay her palm on the earth. Her brows furrowed together under her mess of bangs.

"This doesn't make any sense. They're both telling the truth."

Katara frowned deeply. "That's impossible."

"No it's not!" Sokaa jumped in. Sometimes Lien forgot just how smart he really was, when he wasn't acting like a good ball. "Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think they're telling the truth. Jet's been brainwashed!"

Jet took a weary step away from them. "That's crazy! It can't be!" he looked wildly around at all of them, the whites of his eyes showing. He was scared. "Stay away from me!"

Lien reached out and took his hand, gently. Her fingers shook when they circled his.

He looked at her, straight into her amber eyes.

"It's okay," she said softly. "We're your friends here, right?" She waited until her nodded, slowly. "Then let us help you. Come on," she tugged his hand until he took a step towards her, "We're all shacked up at _Glass Menagerie._ We can go there."

Lien pretended that she didn't feel Katara burning holes in the back of her head as they walked. Longshot and Smeller Bee flanked Jet, trying to offer as much comfort as they could. Lien dropped his hand not long after they started walking, she didn't know how much of her he remembered. The Gaang put up a funny formation around them, Sokka to her right, Katara on the other side of Longshot with Aang not far behind her, and Toph behind Sokka and towards the back.

"Sooo," Sokka began, "Haven't seen you in a few days."

Lien gave him a Look. He cringed and tried again.

"How'd you meet Jet?"

"Mmm, I ran into him outside of a teahouse, and started hanging out with him when I had time. How did _you_ meet Jet? And uh, why does your sister look like she wants to do to him what she did to me?"

"It's a long story. She and Jet were… something, and then he tried to drown a whole town of people and she froze him to a tree," Sokka said. He was a bit too casual about it, if one asked Lien.

"Wait," Smeller Bee picked up her heels so she was at Lien's elbow. "What did you mean about Katara? Was she the one that hurt you?"

Longshot's normally impassive face twisted.

Lien pressed her lips in a thin line. "This isn't the time. I'm fine, we need to be more worried about Jet right now."

Lien unlocked the door and ushered everyone inside, towards the back room. The corner was where a straw mat had been pushed towards the wall, and there was a set of chairs, a table, and some dishes by a vegetable crate. Their clothes were hung up on a line along the opposite wall, still dripping some water from the wash this morning.

 _I got five roommates in this one studio but I never really see them. We came America, trying to get a lap dance from-_

Nope. Not the time.

Longshot cleared off the table without being asked and Smeller Bee ushered Jet to sit in one of the chairs. Lien pulled the curtains closed and lit an oil lamp that looked like it belonged to Aladin. With a little bit of light flickering across the room, a flame a smidge too high to be natural, they turned their attention on Jet. He was still twitchy, still nervous. She had never seen him backed into such a corner.

Sokka drummed his fingers on his arms.

"The Dai Li must have sent Jet to mislead us, and that janitor was part of their plot, too!"

Aang nodded solemnly. "I bet they have Appa here in the city. Maybe he's in the same place they took Jet!" he spun towards the poor freedom fighter, "Where did they take you?"

"Nowhere! I- I don't know what you're talking about!" His voice got high. It was all Lien could do to keep from sweeping in and hugging him. Jet had a magnetism about him, a carisma that made it easy to see why people were so easily drawn into his gang and their cause. Lien was old enough and weary enough of the world that she could recognize that it was there, and keep from being drawn in. Their friendship had been real, for as long as it lasted. She was certain it would be over by the end of the night.

Aang looked around at the rest of them. "We need to find a way to jog his real memories."

Sokka looked half under his brows at his sister, mouth curving in a mocking grin.

"Maybe Katara should kiss him. That should bring something back!"

"Maybe _you_ should kiss him, Sokka!" she snapped immidiately. Lien let his head fall back to the wall. And people thought Zuko was short tempered. Sokka raised his hands placatingly.

"Hey, just an idea!"

"A bad one."

"Ooh, wait! I've got it!"

Sokka plucked a straw from the mattress, poked it into Jet's mouth in his trademark fashion and regarded him thoughtfully.

"I don't think it's working," Jet spit it out in the corner, frowning.

"Try to think of something from your past that triggers your emotions," Toph suggested. She still didn't sound very invested in what was going on.

Smeller Bee made a face even as she said, "The Fire Nation. Remember what they did to your family?"

"Close your eyes," Katara added, "Picture it."

Looking decidedly uncomfortable Jet closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Lien's heart went out to him when sweat started to bead down his brow. His eyes, so wide they were rolling, snapped open and he sat ramrod straight.

"No! It's too painful!"

"There may be another way," Lien pushed off of the wall. Everyone looked at her, Jet more wearily than anyone. "Come here, lay down on the table and close your eyes."

Jet slowly moved to stretch out on her table, his eyes never leaving her face.

Lien lay her hand on his shoulder and tried to smile in a way that was reassuring.

"Close your eyes," she repeated. "It'll keep you from panicking too much."

She just hoped this worked. She couldn't quite remember how it had been done the first time. So, here was hoping that this worked. She'd never tried it on a _human_ before.

Very slowly Jet let his eyes fall shut.

Lien motioned for the others to back up as far as they could before she started this. She looked straight at Jet's two friends.

"Please stay still, and trust me," she pleaded. Longshot looked her in the eye for a long moment before he dipped his chin an inch. With him on board, she knew Bee would follow suit.

Lien stretched her fingers out a foot or so above Jet's back, moving back and forth slowly. Her own eyes closed and soft light flickered at her fingertips. She felt the heat in his body. Felt, more faintly, the sparks of electricity that followed the paths of his nerves.

A change of focus brought about a sharp clarity of his chakra's. They mapped out in her brain, an inner image not unlike closing her eyes after she'd looked at a fire for too long. She started at the bottom, the chakra at the base of his spine.

She would talk to him about the intense imbalance another time, if he would still speak with her after learning her truth. For the time being she nudged the energy a bit with her own, just enough to get it flowing properly in the second chakra.

She moved from earth, to water, to her own fire. She paused over her stomach and with a vague flick of her wrist the energy there was released so fast Jet sucked in sharply. He didn't start shouting though, so she assumed that he had kept his eyes shut and moved on to the air chakra. That one was… very troubling.

Talk about issues with love. There was so much grief just touching down on it was painful for her. Still, Lien had dealt with losing everything she had once upon a time. Not only her family, but her friends, her coworkers, her neighbors, her business. Her life. She had dealt with that grief and she used her own centered heart to nudge his energy along as best as she could, sharing with him some measure of her own tranquility.

 _Gathered around the fire, her mother's hand on her. Warm tea sitting across from Iroh. Rubbing paste on Zuko's cut cheek. Sharing food with Jet. Doing chores with Longshot and Smeller Bee. A piece of glass that cooled just right._

Love was everywhere, if one allowed themselves to see past their loss.

She expected, with the brainwashing, the largest block to be at the crown of the head, or even the forehead where insight was clouded by illusions.

She was wrong. The energy had cut off it's flow at the sound chakra, sitting at the base of his throat. His truth choked by lies, keeping his real voice hidden.

Jet was an honest person, really. To the point of fault. He had never hidden any of himself from her, though he didn't like to talk about his past he didn't lie about it either. She could count on one hand the number of times she had heard him tell a fallacy.

Here, it was choking on a damn of lies that he hadn't put there himself. The illusion of not being able to breath came upon her.

"This may sting a bit," she warned, and surged her own chi right through the blockage, a hot knife through a plastic net. The lies melted away.

Lien opened her eyes and was only marginally surprised to see a flame diagram laid out in the air of his chakras and the messy state they were in.

Jet lunged upwards and it was only her own reflexes that called the flames away from him to wrapped around herself, stinging her hands and arms. All eyes were on her as her skin reddened and the fire disappeared. No one was staring at her so hard as Jet himself, his black eyes wide and clear.

Lien forced her chin up, staring straight into them. Come what may, she had done it. There was no taking anything back, not for any of them. Life didn't work that way.

The muscles in Jet's neck tensed and he choked the first time he tried to say something. He coughed and spit something black out on the floor. It looked suspiciously like burnt meat, but he wasn't acting like he was in pain. Just staring at her with an intensity that she very definitely did not like. Finally, he got his mouth working.

"This explains a lot."


End file.
